My Fair Ladybug
by chassecroise
Summary: When Marinette and Adrien are cast in the roles of Ladybug and Chat Noir in Alya's new school play, real and imagined begin to complicate and influence their personalities in ways that make both their actual crime-fighting and civilian lives much more complicated than they ever could have imagined—especially when it comes to their feelings for each other.
1. The Cast List

_**Author**_ _ **'**_ _ **s Note**_ : Dramatic irony! Fake kisses that are actually real kisses! Costumes within costumes! Acting that's not actually acting! I'm not entirely sure where this story is going yet, but you can be sure that all the great theater tropes are coming your way. Enjoy :))

 **LADYBUG** : Marinette Dupain-Cheng

 **CHAT NOIR** : Adrien Agreste

Even though the cast list is fairly long and includes almost everyone in the class, Marinette only focuses in on the two names on the top, and her heart stops for two reasons:

A) Adrien is her co-lead, which means that she might get to kiss him on stage.

B) Alya is convinced that she is the best person to play the role of Ladybug. When did that happen? How did that happen?

Marinette is not sure what worries her more more, and she's afraid of where this might go, even though the idea of spending hours in rehearsal with her crush is extremely tempting.

She remembers when Alya first came to her with the idea for the play, bursting with excitement.

"It's my special tribute to Ladybug and Chat Noir. I did some research on their relationship and wrote a three act play based on it. I think this is the best way to show our appreciation to commemorate the one year anniversary of their first appearance in Paris! I'm calling it _My Fair Ladybug._ What do you think?"

"Wow, that's impressive," Marinette had said, slowly. She didn't want to seem too excited, didn't want to give too much away. And she had been a little nervous about what Alya had discovered through her probing.

"Isn't it a great idea?" Alya had said as she waved her script around Marinette's face with a bright smile. "I showed it to Professeur Seydoux at the theater department and she loves it! She told me she wants it to be the next official school play."

"That's wonderful! Congrats, Alya!"

Marinette had decided to be supportive of the whole endeavor. After thinking about it, she figured that one school play wouldn't be a big deal, since she herself wasn't an actress—it wasn't like being backstage would compromise her own secret identity.

She had even been willing to sign up as a producer—even though she didn't want to deal with any more productions that involved Chloe. Alya had promised her that Chloe would not be cast in an important role, and that someone else in class would be cast in the role of Ladybug.

She remembers wondering who would be cast in the role. Perhaps Alix, who was naturally athletic. Or maybe Juleka, since she had dark hair. Mylene of course was without a doubt the best actress in the class, even after the whole Horrificator episode. And Chloe would die of jealousy if Sabrina were to be cast in the role—though that was unlikely, given how devoted Sabrina was to her overlord/best friend.

But she never thought it would be her. What was Alya thinking?

The thing is, nowadays, Marinette feels like she's acting most of the time as it is. It's not that she's lying about who she is at any given moment, it's just that in order to keep her friends and family safe, she has to play it by ear.

It means being both flirty and friendly but ultimately impersonal with Chat Noir. It means playing along with Alya's obsession with Ladybug without letting on anything about her true identity. It means telling her parents that the reason she's so fatigued in the morning is from a lot of homework and not because she's spent the last two hours fighting an akuma in the Louvre. It means coming up with excuses when people notice that she disappears whenever Ladybug is in the same place she is.

So she's never really been interested in being an _actress,_ because she already _is_. And she likes to keep those roles separate from each other and does her best not to mix them, except when she has to do it to help someone—like doing a video interview as Ladybug for Alya, or surprising Manon at her birthday party.

So her hesitation to take on the role isn't just because she has to do her best to keep from making a fool out of herself in front of her crush during rehearsal for the next two months—it's because she's afraid that she's going to start having trouble keeping her life as Ladybug separate from her life as Marinette.

When she puts that costume on, she feels differently, talks differently, acts differently.

Will they all notice the difference, even though she'll be wearing a handmade costume and not a magical one?

Marinette is a little afraid of what Alya has written in that script.

* * *

After school, Adrien wanders over to the classroom bulletin board to look at the cast list for Alya's new play. He's not expecting any surprises when it comes to the male lead—over the past year, he has never actually auditioned even once for the school productions—he simply always gets the lead role, along with either Mylene or Chloe as the female lead. (Well, usually Chloe. Mylene got the role only once, and that was because Chloe decided the role wasn't glamorous enough for her)

At first, he thought it was because he was the new kid in school and they were trying to be nice to him, but eventually he figures out that the casting decisions are typically a combination of Chloe threatening the show directors and the show directors assuming that he's the best for the part anyway, given that he's a famous model.

Most of the time, Adrien doesn't think that's quite fair. There are a lot of boys in the class who could probably do just as well, if not better, in most of the parts that he is cast in, if they were just given a chance.

But not this time. When he learned that Alya had written a play about Chat Noir and Ladybug, he knew that the cat was in the bag. Even if he knew the role wasn't going to just be handed to him, nobody was going to be able to play the part better than him. Because he _is_ Chat Noir. It's no act.

And in many ways, it's a relief, since most people at school believe that Adrien's a put-together, calm, collected prince of sorts. And okay—he is a nice guy, but there are so many times that he wants to burst out with a pun or two, and he doesn't do it. He doesn't know why. It's easy enough to let the puns fly when he's alone with Plagg or the Gorilla (and occasionally Natalie or Nino), but he never feels truly himself until he's behind the guise of his superhero persona.

Maybe playing Chat Noir without actually _being_ Chat Noir will make it possible for him to show that more relaxed side of his to his friends at school. After all, they deserve to know a little bit more about him. And he's got far too many great puns lying around to wait for only Ladybug to hear them all.

So it's not the fact that he's been cast as Chat Noir that's surprising to Adrien. It's the fact that Marinette has been cast as Ladybug.

She's not someone who he had ever pictured on stage. But when he thinks about it, he can see how it works. She's the class president and she's best friends with Alya, who wrote the play. Increasingly, she's been taking on leadership roles in the school, and he can see shades of Ladybug's natural commanding presence when she coordinates classroom events.

There's also the fact that even though she was only the producer for the student film the class had made, she had been willing to step up and take the role when Mylene had gone missing.

And it's also true that she has the same hair color and style as Ladybug. So perhaps the casting isn't so unusual after all.

The one thing Adrien is most concerned about is whether she'll be able to act opposite him. He knows Marinette is not a shy girl around everyone else in the class, but she always seems so tongue-tied around him, and he doesn't know why.

He remembers how he had to help her calm down when they were about to film the kissing scene for the student film and how nervous she had been—though in retrospect, that might have been because she was about to kiss him, not because she was acting—but either way, he hopes that she'll be fine doing the role. And he looks forward to getting to know her better during rehearsals.

At any rate, it's going to be a nice change of pace doing a play with someone other than Chloe playing the female lead.

* * *

The first day of rehearsals, Marinette walks up to her best friend and taps her on the shoulder.

"Hey Alya, I've got to talk to you about something," says Marinette. "Why did you and Nino cast Adrien as Chat Noir? I just don't see it. They have nothing in common!"

Alya shakes her head. "No way. He's perfect for the part. He's got blond hair and green eyes and they're about the same height—"

"But they're nothing alike!" counters Marinette. "Adrien is so sweet and quiet, how can he possibly play Chat Noir?"

"I don't know, Marinette. I know you like him, but I don't think you know Adrien all that well. Nino says that he loves bad puns, just like Chat Noir."

"That's impossible. Nobody could possibly like bad puns as much as Chat Noir," says Marinette flatly.

Alya laughs. "Either way, he's just playing a part. It doesn't actually matter if they have the same personality. And you know he usually plays the lead role in our school plays! Just wait till you see the script—everything will make sense to you once you read the actual story."

"Actually, that's another thing I wanted to talk to you about," says Marinette, slowly. "Why did you cast me as Ladybug?"

Alya looks at her, eyes wide. "Wait, did I not tell you?"

"What do you mean?"

"I'm so sorry, Mari, it must have slipped my mind!" says Alya, lightly smacking the side of her head. "So remember how I promised you that I wouldn't cast Chloe in the lead role?"

"Of course."

"Well I went to Mylene next, and she said she didn't feel comfortable playing the role on stage, because it was too intense—she said that she had enough anxiety playing a secret agent without playing a secret superhero. And then she suggested you for the part."

"Mylene suggested me? Why?"

"Well she says—" starts Alya before Professeur Seydoux, the theater teacher, walks in and interrupts.

"Bonjour, everyone!" she says. "Welcome to the first day of rehearsals. Where are my Ladybug and Chat Noir? Please come to the front of the room."

Nino and Alya push their best friends to the front of the group. They stand several feet apart and wave awkwardly at the teacher.

"Hmm," says the Professeur, shaking her head in disapproval. "The two of you don't seem comfortable together yet. This is unacceptable. Ladybug and Chat Noir are best friends, but you two seem to be complete strangers."

She turns to glare at Alya and Nino. "Casting directors! I thought you said you had chosen two leads who had perfect chemistry! Where is Chloe?"

"Pardon?" says Marinette, confused. She quickly turns to look at her best friend, who has turned red and is wearing a sheepish expression on her face and avoiding direct eye contact with her. So Alya did this on purpose, to speed things up between her and Adrien. Marinette doesn't know whether to laugh or cry or shake her head.

Nino laughs nervously. "They do, Professeur! They're just feeling nervous, since they haven't seen the script yet. Isn't that right, Adrien?"

Professeur Seydoux interrupts before Adrien can answer. "I don't care. But we have to fix this right now."

"But how?" asks Alya. "It's too late to change the cast."

"It's simple. Adrien and Marinette need to feel physically comfortable around each other. They need to be completely in sync, just as Ladybug and Chat Noir are."

Adrien and Marinette both blush bright red. Neither has ever actually thought about how close they get to their partner while fighting. In the heat of the moment as they're trying to shield each other from attacks or they're sailing through the skies of Paris, they've never had the time to actually think about what it means when their bodies are pressed together. Especially Marinette.

But now, she thinks about the feeling of Chat Noir's face brushing against her cheeks when he embraced her to keep Timebreaker from touching her. She feels the weight of his body pressing on her legs when he collapsed onto her after she rescued him from the ice box at the hotel, and she thinks about the infinite number of times when his hands have been wrapped around her waist or when they've held hands while running from the akumas.

But mostly, she thinks about the pressure of his lips on hers when she kissed him to break Dislocoeur's spell and how he forgot it all afterward, and she momentarily forgets how to breathe.

"I'm not sure where you're going with this," says Nino, confused.

"I mean that we're going to start rehearsals with the kiss scene from the finale," says Professeur Seydoux.

Adrien and Marinette startle in shock. And for the first time since the beginning of rehearsal, they make direct eye contact, eyes wide, before turning to their teacher and asking, in unison:

"What kiss scene?!"


	2. The Exercise

**Author's Note** : The little exercise that Professeur Seydoux forces Marinette and Adrien to do is actually something my winter play director did when I was in high school! We were doing Miracle on 34th Street and all of us who were playing minor roles kept laughing during the romantic scenes, so she made us sit there and watch them kiss over and over again until we got bored of it. Needless to say, it's a little tidbit I've wanted to have an excuse to use in fiction for a long time now :)

Everyone backstage bursts into laughter as Marinette and Adrien stare at the professeur in shock.

"It's the most important scene in the finale," says Professeur Seydoux, raising her voice to be heard over the giggling, though barely anyone is listening.

"Ladybug and Chat Noir are reaffirming their relationship after defeating the toughest akuma they've had to face yet. They're still breathless from the fight, and in the middle of their adrenaline rush, they run to each other and kiss."

" _But our relationship isn_ _'_ _t like that!_ " is what Marinette wants to say as Professeur Seydoux continues to explain the mechanics of blocking the scene and why it's such a pivotal moment in the play.

 _Even if we wanted to kiss, we wouldn't actually do it during a fight. We're not that irresponsible._

To say she feels conflicted is an understatement. It's true that she really wants to kiss Adrien. She really, really wants to kiss him, over and over again, and this play is the perfect way to make that happen without making things weird. And things are plenty weird already, since she can barely string together two words in front of him without making a fool of herself.

But she also doesn't want the play to tell the wrong story about her and Chat Noir. It's true that she and Chat are always flirting. But it doesn't _mean_ anything—at least she didn't think it did.

It was one thing to almost kiss him when she was standing in for the role of the secret agent. Those weren't real people. But Chat? He is absolutely real, and she doesn't want to hurt his feelings. Marinette's had a feeling for a while that he's got a bit of a crush on her, and while he's always respectful and polite (despite his terrible puns), she's never tried to encourage it. And she certainly doesn't want to do it now.

And okay, now that the professeur is talking about how close they are, she's feeling a little confused about the whole relationship, but the point is that she likes Adrien, not Chat Noir. And she doesn't want to mix it all up.

To Marinette, it makes a difference that she's taking on the role. If it were someone else playing the role of Ladybug, it wouldn't matter how the play was written, because authenticity wouldn't even come into question. There is no way another actress could possibly know what it's like to truly be in her shoes.

But Marinette _is_ Ladybug and if she has to portray that side of herself as a civilian, it's her responsibility to make sure that Ladybug is as real as she can possibly be.

What if Chat Noir hears about the play and shows up to see it? Of course, that would be another problem—if he shows up, people will expect the real Ladybug to be in the audience as well. And unless she finds some way to clone herself before opening night, that's not going to happen.

Marinette knows that Alya just wanted to help her and Adrien come together faster. She's just not sure this is the right way to go about it. Unfortunately, there's nothing she can do but go along with it.

Adrien, on the other hand, is not conflicted. He's just wistful.

 _I_ _ **wish**_ _I had a relationship like that with Ladybug_ , he thinks. He wonders what she would think if she found out about the production. Would she be angry? Would she be happy? He wonders whether he should mention it to her the next time he sees her, or if that would be a bad idea. Perhaps it would actually be a good way to approach the topic.

The laughter continues, and Professeur Seydoux frowns. "I do not approve of how lightly all of you are taking this. It's not funny, and all of you must stop laughing at the idea of our two leads kissing. What will happen if all of you continue to act this way every time Adrien and Marinette are rehearsing this scene?"

"It will take four weeks and twelve hours to learn one scene," says Max, looking at his watch.

Professeur Seydoux rolls her eyes. "Thank you, Max, but that's not my point. What I need all of you to understand is that all of you must get used to seeing your two leads kissing in front of you, or we will get nowhere during rehearsals."

She pauses to clear her throat as Adrien and Marinette turn redder and redder, and their classmates continue to titter, except for Alya, who is wearing a pained expression for Marinette's benefit and Nino, who feels like hiding in the janitor's closet, after remembering the story that Adrien told him this very morning about directors on his photoshoots pulling weird stunts to make him more "comfortable" with the female models he often has to shoot with.

He's afraid that Professeur Seydoux, who has a reputation for being a little quirky, is going to do something similar.

He's right.

"So we're going to do a special exercise. Adrien and Marinette are going to kiss each other in front of all of you, over and over again, until all of you stop thinking it's funny."

"Is that really necessary—" starts Nino before Alya grabs his arm and shakes her head. It's a bad idea to argue with this professeur. She won't listen to anything he has to say. And she also doesn't want him to ruin this moment for her best friend, when she's so close to finally kissing her crush.

"Come up here, you two," says the professeur, beckoning at an empty space in front of the other students as she picks something up from the prop table.

"And put on these two masks so it will be easier for you to get into character."

Adrien and Marinette walk towards Professeur Seydoux with trepidation. Marinette feels like every step is a thousand miles—she never thought that her first kiss (kisses!) with Adrien would be in front of the entire class, while she pretended to be her superhero alter ego.

As for Adrien, it's not the first time that he's kissed someone on stage or for a photoshoot, but they're always kisses on the cheek, or on the forehead. The closest he's ever gotten to actually kissing someone on the lips for something like this was during the student film—ironically, with Marinette—and that didn't end up happening after all.

They put on the masks and stand, facing each other silently, waiting for what comes next. Marinette is struck by how different the plastic imitation mask feels on her face, and how it makes her feel exposed, rather than comfortable and confident. And she tries not to think about how much Adrien looks like Chat Noir right now, peering at her curiously through that black mask with those green, green eyes.

Professeur Seydoux waves her arms, directing them. "Marinette, place your hands around Adrien's neck. Adrien, stand a little closer, and gently place your hands on her hips, and lean in. Close the gap."

The space between them is electric, and tense. Marinette's heart is beating so fast she can hardly take it, and her face is burning up but her hands feel like they're turning into ice. She tentatively places them on his shoulders. She can feel the warmth of his skin rising through his cotton shirt, soft to the touch. And even though they're almost the same height, up close, he suddenly seems much taller. She slides her hands instinctively up to cup his face and pull it closer to hers.

Adrien can feel Marinette's nervous energy as she leans into him, and it's overwhelming but pleasant. He shifts his weight onto the balls of his feet and presses his hands against her waist. She's soft to the touch, her gaze flickering up and down from his lips to his eyes, and even though he can hear the Professeur's directions, he already knows instinctively what to do.

The first thing Marinette notices as Adrien's lips touch hers is that it feels familiar, like she's kissed him though that's impossible—she's only ever fantasized about doing what she's doing right now. And yet she recognizes the curve of his jawbone, the place where his mask ends and his face begins—and the way he sinks into the kiss with a sigh and presses his arms against the small of her back, like he doesn't want to let go.

It lasts a few seconds at most, but it feels much longer. And though Marinette doesn't want to admit it, it feels exactly like she's kissing Chat Noir. And she likes it. Why does she like it?

As they pull apart, though they can hear the giggling of their classmates, it almost feels like they they're standing on an island on their own. They lock eyes and look at each other in a daze. They both feel like they're in a daydream, and they're afraid to let go.

Professeur Seydoux's shrill voice breaks the spell. "Marinette, Adrien, kiss again. You need to do this again until your classmates stop giggling. Don't just stand there. Show me your chemistry."

This time, Marinette is the one to lean in first, and Adrien feels a weird sense of deja vu as the edges of her mask bump against his. It truly feels like he's kissing Ladybug, and he smiles a little bit and squeezes her waist as he pulls her a little bit closer.

The laughs continue, but they diminish slightly. The novelty is beginning to wear off. Still, Professeur Seydoux makes them do it again.

By the third kiss, they both lean in at the same time, and Marinette feels like she's melting into him. She can't tell where she ends and Adrien begins, and at this point, the others have stopped laughing, and some of them are even looking away. The tone in the room has completely shifted, and what started out as something performative now feels completely intimate.

Even Professeur Seydoux wonders whether she should have made them go this far. She didn't count on this happening when she began the exercise, and she needs to draw the line. As she looks at their faces, she realizes that Marinette and Adrien are in no shape emotionally to continue rehearsal, so she ends it early and asks the two of them to stay back for a few minutes afterward.

Once the three of them are alone, she reminds her two leads that this is just a play, and that even though it's important for actors to identify with the characters they're playing, they shouldn't get too emotionally involved in anything that's happening, because it's not real.

As they walk out unsteadily, the professeur sighs and shakes her head. She doubts the message got through. At any rate, she hopes that the exercise doesn't affect the rest of rehearsal. But she's sure they'll be fine. They're teenagers. Nothing for them is that complicated.

* * *

Marinette walks out of the theater in a daze, barely paying attention to what Alya is saying to her. She can't quite believe what just happened, and she has no idea what to make of it. She's both delighted and utterly conflicted. Kissing Adrien was better than she could ever have even imagined, but she had never in a million years thought it would remind her of her silly kitty.

"Girl, you were all over Adrien! I knew writing those kisses in would be a good idea," babbles Alya in delight. "I'm so sorry I didn't tell you earlier, but I thought it would be a fun surprise for you, and then what with Professeur Seydoux—"

"Alya, you know that Chat Noir and Ladybug aren't actually in a relationship, right?" blurts out Marinette. She doesn't know why she says it. But she can't think of anything else to say.

Alya looks at her in surprise. "What makes you say that?"

"I mean—did Ladybug ever tell you that she's dating Chat Noir when you met her?"

"Well, no. But it's pretty obvious, don't you think?" says Alya, grinning brightly. "Anyway, she's doing superhero work without even knowing! She's helping you and Adrien finally get together!"

Marinette smiles weakly and shrugs. The truth is so much more complicated than her best friend knows.

As Adrien stands waiting for his father's limo to show up, he watches Marinette and Alya walk away into the distance. He wonders if she feels as mixed up as he does about everything that's happened today. He thought it would be easy for him to put on the mask today and feel the rush of confidence that he always does after transforming, but he didn't, and he wonders why.

What he does know for sure is that the minute Marinette put on that mask, her entire demeanor shifted, and he keeps thinking about how Marinette kept looking into his eyes like she was searching for something. He can't stop wondering what it was.

Mostly, he can't stop thinking about how much Marinette reminded him of Ladybug the second time they kissed—the way her body moved in sync with his, the way she seemed to instinctively recognize the shape of his face and his mask, even though it was made of plastic.

It is, quite frankly, a bit of a turn on, and he wonders for a millisecond whether he should ask her out instead of waiting for the right moment to confess to Ladybug, since quite frankly, it would make everything a lot easier—especially since Marinette is a sweet girl and a great kisser.

And then he immediately rejects the idea, because he doesn't want to betray his one true love, even though she has no idea how he really feels about her, regardless of how Alya's play portrays their relationship. He doesn't mind waiting—the right moment for him to confess his feelings to her will definitely come if he's patient.

* * *

Close to midnight, Marinette is still awake, her mind racing from the events of the day. She lies down on her bed and gazes out the window, unable to fall asleep. The kisses are still running through her head in a constant blur, and she still can't quite believe it all. Today was just day one. How will she make it through two months of rehearsals? She's not sure her heart can handle that kind of stress.

She closes her eyes and softly touches her fingers to her lips as she tries again to fall asleep. Maybe she can worry about that later.

And then Marinette remembers what all of this is for, and she groans and sits straight up as Chat Noir's silly but earnest grin dances across her mind.

Tikki looks at her with concern and leans across the pillow. "What's wrong, Marinette? Are you okay?"

Marinette turns to her and shakes her head. "Tikki, we have to make sure that Chat Noir doesn't find out that this play is happening."

"But how?" asks Tikki. "I heard the the director say that she's going to put ads up all throughout Paris! I don't think you can stop him from finding out."

"I don't know, but I'm going to do it somehow. He doesn't deserve to have his feelings hurt like this."

"But Marinette, can't you just talk to him about it? I'm sure he'll understand!"

Marinette sighs. "But it's so complicated, Tikki! How would you talk to him about something like this? I don't even know how to bring it up."

"It won't be easy, but I believe in you! But you need to go to sleep or you won't be able to focus at school."

"You're right," said Marinette, yawning. "Good night!"

"Good night, Marinette. Sweet Dreams."

Tikki smiles at her disheveled friend. History has repeated itself so many times that she knows exactly how this is all going to play out, but she knows she has to watch from the sidelines. In the end, it will all work out. But for now, she's going to sit back and and watch the fun.


	3. The Earrings

**Author's Note** : Hi friends, so sorry this is later than I intended it to be! I've got a full time job and I'm a freelance writer, and all those things have been taking up all my free time. But Chapter 3 is finally here (after a lot of struggle lol) and this story is definitely going in a different direction than how I thought it would, lol. I'm having fun letting them lead me where they will! Will Adrien soon learn the truth? Who knows? Enjoy :D

The next morning, Marinette doesn't have time to plan out how she's going to talk to Chat Noir about the play, thanks to the latest akuma attacking the city. The victim is Chloe's limo driver, who was incensed by her disrespectful attitude towards him. Hawk Moth's akuma has transformed him into Le Chauffeur, and he is locking everyone inside the nearest cars and forcing them to drive in circles around the city.

Marinette watches the insanity at her school from her rooftop balcony and sighs as she turns to her kwami. "Looks like now isn't a good time, is it, Tikki?"

Tikki shakes her head. "Sorry, Marinette. I know you wanted to talk to him!"

Marinette shakes her head. "Paris will always come first. Let's go, Tikki— _transforme moi!_ "

She leaps across the building tops as the early morning sun shines brightly in her face and tries not to think too much about what she's going to say to her partner when he arrives on the scene. She hopes that they won't have too much time to think, though that's unlikely. She and Chat always discuss the game plan before tackling their akumas. She crosses her fingers and hopes that she can act normal around him.

* * *

Ladybug arrives at the school within a few minutes and scopes out the scene. It appears that the Chauffeur's rage seems to be primarily targeted at Chloe (what else is new), so the best way to get him to focus on Ladybug and Chat will be to get her out of the way. Which might be hard, given the fact that she is zig-zagging around the grounds like a startled pigeon.

"Bonjour, my lady," says Chat as he swoops down from the top of the building to the balcony and joins Ladybug. He loses his balance as he lands on the ground, grabbing her shoulder to steady himself, gently pressing the tips of his fingers against the edges of her collarbone. Until yesterday, she wouldn't have thought twice about it—she and Chat are a team. But now, she can't stop thinking about how it feels to be standing so close to him.

"Ah, Chat, you're here," she says, finding herself looking a little longer into his eyes than usual, which he immediately notices. It reminds him of the way Marinette was staring at him yesterday, but surely that can't be more than a coincidence. He's just got rehearsal on his mind.

"Am I looking that _chat_ -mant today?" he asks with his trademark feline grin.

"Don't be silly, _petit minou_ ," says Ladybug, rolling her eyes, though she does it more half-heartedly than usual. She wonders what it would be like to kiss him for real.

They fall into an awkward silence before she clears her throat and points to the Chauffeur.

"So, kitty—that's our target today."

"Isn't that—"

"Yes, it's Chloe's driver."

"How many akumas has that girl caused?" says Chat, rolling his eyes as Chloe runs around, screaming like a banshee while trying to escape from the Chauffeur.

"She might be the worst person in Paris, but we still have to save her. Again."

"Ugh, _j'en ai ras le bol !_ " says Chat Noir. "But fine—jump on, I can swing us down." He perches on his baton and gestures at his legs.

Ladybug blushes. "Ah, that's not necessary, I can use my yo-yo!"

" _Buginette_ , is everything okay? You seem a little distracted today."

"I'm fine, Chat—it's just that…there's something I need to talk to you about."

"What is it?"

Ladybug jerks her head as Chloe screams again, finally caught by the Chauffeur and shoved into a car.

"I'll tell you later—we've got to go now!"

Together, they swoop down, rescuing Chloe and confronting the Chauffeur. In the middle of battle, Ladybug and Chat Noir fall into their regular patterns—noticing the enemy's weaknesses at the same time, launching attacks in sync, following the beat and rhythm that they've developed over a year of working together. It's fun, it's breezy, and they both love it.

But in a matter of minutes, Ladybug captures the akuma and purifies it, bidding adieu to the little white butterfly as it flies away into the distance. As she watches Chat pat the disoriented limo driver on the back and sends the man on his way, the dark, cold pit of reality sets into her stomach once more. Now that they're done fighting, it's time for her to have the conversation with Chat that she's been trying so hard to avoid.

Once they're alone again, they fall into an awkward silence as the tension rises.

Chat's not sure what to do. Ladybug isn't usually this nervous. Even though he's the one that flirts and jokes around with her, their dynamic works because she always has a response at the tip of her tongue, or a roll of the eyes.

He coughs.

"My lady, you said you wanted to tell me something?"

" _Oui,_ I did…It's about something I'm doing at school that involves you—" she begins to say as the bell tower starts ringing loudly. "Wait, what time is it? "

"Slightly past 9! –Oh no," says Chat, the color draining from his face. "I've got to go right now. I'm late for school."

"Me too!" says Ladybug. "Can we continue this conversation later? It's really important."

"Anytime you want, _Buginette_ , you know I'm just a message away."

" _Merci_ , _petit minou_. I'm sorry that I have to keep you hanging like this."

They bound away in opposite directions, Ladybug cursing herself for not being able to just spit it out, and Chat wondering what it could possibly be that she wants to talk about.

Marinette arrives at school a mere thirty seconds before Adrien and manages to sneak into class without being noticed by the teacher, but Adrien himself notes that her cheeks are more flushed and her hair looks more disheveled than usual, and he wonders why that is.

It occurs to him that he's been wondering a lot about Marinette since being cast in the play, and if it has to do with the fact that she's reminding him in many ways of Ladybug these days. But then again, that's part of the charm of Ladybug. In many ways, she reminds him of a regular school girl, even though she's so much more.

As Adrien sneaks another glance at Marinette, he realizes to his surprise that her eyes are the exact shade of cerulean blue as Ladybug's.

* * *

After the end of the first period, Marinette suddenly remembers that Alya never actually told her why Mylene had recommended her for the role that is turning her life even more topsy-turvy than it already is, which she would never have thought was possible, given the fact that she's already living a double life and her best friend is obsessed with her superhero alter ego.

She pokes Alya in the shoulder. "Hey, Mademoiselle Playwright, I've got a bone to pick with you."

Alya sticks her tongue out at her. "What is it, _Ladybug_?"

"You never actually told me why Mylene suggested me for the lead role in your play."

"Oh! I didn't, did I? Well, it's because she said that you remind her a little bit of Ladybug."

Marinette feels her heart start to beat faster. Does Mylene know her secret?

"I…remind her of Ladybug? In what way?"

Adrien tries not to eavesdrop on the conversation, but he can't help it. He's starting to form his own suspicions, but they're all based on observations that nobody else could possibly make. What has Mylene noticed?

"She told me that the way you were standing up for her during the film shoot and the way you were rallying everyone was very much like Ladybug, and you know, when she mentioned it, I could see it! You've really been a great leader this year, Marinette."

Marinette sighs with relief. So it has nothing to do with something Mylene has noticed. Unconsciously, she touches her fingers to her earrings and absently rubs them.

Adrien sees. And for the first time, he realizes that the design on her earrings are—

"Dude, what's up? You've been staring at Marinette a lot lately," says Nino, interrupting his thoughts.

Adrien turns to look at his friend and laughs nervously. "Have I? I guess it might be because of what happened at rehearsal."

Nino grins. "Yeah, those were some kisses yesterday. I didn't know you had that in you!"

Adrien smiles and shrugs at his friend. He wants to look back again at Marinette and take a second glance at her earrings, but he can't do it now, or he knows that Nino will notice again. He's going to have to wait until rehearsal. He sighs and impatiently taps his pencil on the desk as he watches the seconds slowly tick by on the clock.

He wishes the school day was over already—he's burning with the desire to look behind him again, to see if there's anything else he's never noticed before in the way Marinette moves, in the way she talks—in the way she smiles.

This must be how Plagg feels whenever he's craving Camembert, the endless desire for more—though in this case, it's information that he wants. At any rate, Adrien is convinced that the girl with the pigtails and the bright smile is far more interesting than any kind of cheese.


	4. The Visit

_**Author's Note**_ : After two weeks of new episodes, I was wondering what direction to take this fic in, but now I'm feeling inspired again, and I hope you all have fun with what's happening! Please shoot me a message stardusted or chassecroise on tumblr if you like it! I love to hear from readers :)

* * *

Adrien spends all day trying to think of a way to get a better look at Marinette's earrings again without being weird about it, but he can't think of anything that's not suspicious. And when he finally does get a chance during their lunch break, Plagg starts kicking the side of his bag and Adrien has to run off and feed him cheese, scowling at the tiny black kwami's self satisfied little smirk as he gobbles it down. By the time he returns to the classroom, Marinette's already gone home for lunch.

Finally, it's the end of the day, and Adrien practically runs to rehearsal. He doesn't want to waste any more time, and he purposefully walks up to Marinette, who's talking to Alya, and taps her shoulder. She jumps in surprise at the feeling of his hand and turns around to look at him curiously.

" _Salut_ Adrien! Did you need something?"

Adrien waves his arms in her general direction and twists his lips, trying to think of a way to say, "Can I look at your earrings?" without sounding like a total creep.

"Um—well…"

Professeur Seydoux saves him by calling the main cast over to her. She tells them to sit in a circle as she hands out sheets of paper and pens.

"Okay, everyone. Today, we're going to explore our characters. I want you to truly understand how your characters think and feel and see the world. Dive deep into their psyche and figure out how they tick, what they like, what they hate. Any questions?"

Everyone shakes their head no, and the Professeur turns to look at her two leads, pointing her pens in their direction.

"Also—my Ladybug and Chat Noir—even though everyone else is writing about their own characters, I want the two of you to write essays about how Ladybug and Chat Noir see each other. Marinette, you should write about how Ladybug sees Chat Noir, and Adrien, I want you to explore how Chat Noir sees Ladybug. Dig deep and be as authentic as possible. I want both of you to connect with your characters so well that the audience actually thinks that you are Ladybug and Chat Noir.

Adrien and Marinette both hide their smirks from the Professeur (and from each other). She has no idea.

"Of course, Professeur," says Adrien dutifully. "I'll do my best." He takes one of the pens she's offering them and sneaks a look at Marinette as she moves past him to take a pen herself. He manages to get a quick glimpse of one of her earrings before a lock of hair falls over her ear and hides them again, and he sighs. But it is at least enough to confirm to Adrien that his eyes aren't deceiving him. Marinette's earrings are exactly the same as Ladybug's.

What does it mean? Is she a fan, like Alya and Chloe? If so, it certainly is a subtle way to go about it. Nobody except the most diehard fan would notice. And Alya has certainly never said anything about it. Maybe she's just never noticed herself.

Or maybe Marinette just started wearing them after she got cast in the role, to get into character. But then again, from the sounds of it, she didn't volunteer for the role—it was Mylene's suggestion.

It's a mystery, and Adrien wants desperately to solve it. For months now, he's been dying to learn who Ladybug really is, but he never asks her anything about her civilian life, because he knows how private she is.

But first, it's time for him to write about how Chat Noir sees Ladybug. Which is easy, because Ladybug is everything. In fact, Adrien thinks of so many good things to say about her that after he looks down at his paper after five minutes he figures he should tone it down a little bit, to avoid coming across as a total fanboy. Even though he is, and he knows that Plagg will tease him for days once they get home.

Marinette sits quietly in the corner and ponders what to write about Chat. She's feeling so confused and worried about what to tell the real Chat about the play that it's hard to focus on her assignment for class.

But then she thinks about her silly _minou_ , and how he'd call laugh off her worry and tease her about how they're meant to be together (he's been doing that a lot more often these days, come to think of it), and then the words come flowing.

Marinette writes about how silly he is, how he's kind and funny and gallant. How he's always there when she needs him, and how he's the most genuine person she knows, but a little too cocky and overconfident at the same time. Infuriating but as close to a best friend that a superhero partner can be—as in sync as humanly possible, even though she doesn't even know his real name.

She scratches that last part out. Nobody else knows that Ladybug and Chat Noir don't know each other as civilians. In fact, she's not sure that anyone actually knows that they have civilian forms, since they always run off and hide before they detransform.

Before she knows it, it's time for everyone to share their paragraphs, and Professeur Seydoux chooses Marinette to go first. Adrien is excited to hear what she has to say about Chat Noir, not only because of all the things he's wondering about her, but also because he's saved her a couple times, and he can't help but wonder if she was at least a little bit impressed by his skills. At the very least, he hopes that she will praise his speed and acrobatics.

But he's surprised to see that she doesn't mention his physical abilities at all. It seems to him that Marinette is focused entirely on Chat Noir's personality, and her level of insight is startling for someone who's only met him a few times.

Because the thing is, even though Paris is a city devoted to worshipping its two heroes, the focus is usually entirely on Ladybug—and so the fact that a simple civilian girl like Marinette has such a sharp insight on the way he thinks—well, it makes Adrien even more curious about her than he was before.

And then he hears her say "cocky and overconfident at the same time", and he deflates a little bit. Marinette is taken aback. She wonders if she's offended Adrien somehow, even though that wouldn't make sense. He's the opposite of cocky and overconfident—he's sweet and charming and nothing like Chat at all, as she's reminded Alya multiple times.

Unfortunately, she can't continue the rest of her paragraph, since that's what she's crossed out, so Adrien never hears her say the part about Chat being as close to a best friend to Ladybug as he can be. Instead, she tapers off and shrugs, and Professeur Seydoux tells her to sit down as she beckons at Adrien to stand up and read what he's written.

And Marinette finds that she is speechless when she hears it. He's written a tender account of how much he looks up to Ladybug and how she's the bright light in the city of Paris, and how no matter how dark things get, Ladybug will be the one to make things right—and Chat Noir will stand behind her all the way.

Everyone applauds as Adrien sits down and Ivan begins reading his paragraph, but Marinette isn't listening, because she has just realized that Adrien genuinely has a crush on Ladybug. Yes, he's writing from the perspective of Chat, but what he doesn't know is that Chat doesn't really have feelings like that for her. Because if he truly did, Marinette would know about it.

The only secret Chat has ever kept from her is his true identity—and that only because Ladybug has always wanted to keep it that way.

It's the main reason she's so worried about this play. The way Chat flirts and calls her "my lady" all the time, it's just the way they interact. If he shows up to the play and sees "Ladybug" and "Chat Noir" kissing on stage like they're meant to be together forever, what will he think? And how will Marinette's changing feelings toward him complicate things further? It was bad enough this morning when she couldn't tell him about the play. How will she deal with Adrien, playing a lovestruck Chat Noir in rehearsal, and then face the real one when she sees him again? What if she starts to mix them up?

But all of that complicated nonsense aside, what this exercise boils down to is this: Adrien is genuinely in love with Ladybug. And Marinette finds that it hurts a little bit, even though she knows it's irrational. She is Ladybug, after all. She could make this happen, if she wanted to.

Does she want to?

Maybe.

It's a tempting thought, and she continues to ponder what Adrien has written while the others go on, not listening to anything they're saying. Adrien, too, is distracted, though for other reasons. He's got many things on his mind.

* * *

Later, at home, Adrien leans back in his chair thinking about how Marinette described him, and how it lines up with how Ladybug actually acts around him. How is it possible for her to read him so well?

Plagg groans. "Can I please have some camembert? I've been putting up with your gumshoe act all day and I'm going to need several rounds of cheese if you're going to keep going."

Adrien sighs. "But Plagg, how can Marinette know me so well? Only Ladybug could possibly know those things about me."

Plagg scowls in response and Adrien rolls his eyes and opens up a jar sitting on his desk and tosses a few pieces to the grumpy kwami, who swallows them whole. He opens one bright beady green eye to stare directly at Adrien.

"You tell me, Jules Maigret. You're the one playing detective."

* * *

At home, Marinette wonders what would happen if she visited Adrien as Ladybug. Just out of curiosity. How would he react?

She remembers the one time she ran into him as Ladybug, when she was fighting The Mime. He hadn't said anything then, just stared at her, with what Marinette distinctly remembers now as a look of pure wonder, and it makes her heart stop for a moment.

And those kisses that still make her lips tingle when she thinks about them.

And all those nice things he said at rehearsal today. She wants to hear them again. Because honestly, what girl wouldn't want to hear such nice things straight from the mouth of the boy she loved? Was it really that surprising that Marinette wanted to visit him right then and there?

Tikki shakes her head, worried. "Marinette, it's risky! You've never done anything like this before. Are you sure it's a good idea?"

"Of course not, Tikki! But I'm not sure of anything right now. Not about Chat, not about Adrien, not about this play…but I'm just curious."

She looks out the window and watches the Eiffel Tower glittering in the distance.

"What's the worst that could happen? It's not like I'm going to tell him who I really am. I just want to say hi." _And maybe do a few more things_.

Tikki sighs. She can clearly see that Marinette is feeling impulsive tonight, so she says nothing more.

Marinette transforms into Ladybug and leaps off her roof. She swiftly leaps across the tops of the buildings in the darkness before landing atop the Agreste Mansion, panting and out of breath—partly from the exercise, but mostly from nerves.

Ladybug takes a deep breath before leaping off the roof. She swings back and forth in front of his room and taps repeatedly on the window, with what she hopes is a flirty expression.

* * *

Adrien looks out the window and jumps in surprise. He blinks and rubs his eyes several times before running immediately to the window to let her in.

"Ladybug? What…what are you doing here? Is there an akuma outside?" He rubs his ring, ready to think of an excuse to run out of the room so he can transform into Chat Noir.

"No! No—there's no akuma. I just—"

Ladybug is at a loss for words herself. She's not sure either. She didn't actually think she'd get this far, and without a reason to be authoritative and bossy around a civilian, she's not sure how to act. Ladybug isn't usually around in non-threatening situations. There's no code of conduct to follow here. She's in completely unfamiliar territory.

"I…don't know. I guess I just wanted to see you tonight." _What is she saying?_

Adrien stares at her, eyes wide. "Wait, does that mean you know me? In your—your civilian form?"

Ladybug pauses. She's always been so careful about keeping the lines between her life as Marinette and her life as Ladybug completely separate. If she says yes, that means risking everything.

If she says no, well—then she's safe. And so is Adrien. So that's probably the better option. But to say no, she has to have a proper explanation.

She tries to think quickly for reasons to explain why she's here when her eyes light upon something heart shaped and red sitting on the corner of Adrien's desk, next to a picture of a smiling woman who looks a lot like him.

It looks like a valentine—wait, the valentine! The one that she wrote as a response to the crumpled up valentine Adrien had thrown in the trash, the one that she and Tikki thought was for Marinette.

It had said, "I wish I knew who you were underneath that mask." Tikki had said it was a poetic metaphor, but Ladybug realizes now that Adrien was being completely literal—because the poem wasn't for Marinette. It was for Ladybug.

She remembers now that she never actually signed her poem. And maybe now, for once, that can help her. Because she remembers every single word that she wrote like it was yesterday.

Ladybug points at the card on the desk. "That valentine, who is it from? One of your classmates?"

Adrien notices what she's staring at and turns bright red.

"I—that—that's from someone—I don't know. It wasn't signed."

She slowly approaches him, reciting the words from memory.

" _Tes cheveux brillent comme le soleil_ ,

 _Tes yeux sont du vert de la chance_ ,

 _Je te regarde et me demande,_

 _Tes pensées et rêves._

 _Oui, ta valentine je sarais,_

 _Notre amour sera si vrai,_

 _Ensemble pour l'eternité,_

 _Mon coeur t'appartient_."

Adrien gasps.

"—It _was_ from you!"

Ladybug smiles up at him. Even when she's transformed, he's still taller than her, and she finds it incredibly attractive. She's two inches from his face, and she's not sure what's come over her, but she's feeling reckless like she's never felt before and even though she knows it's probably the worst idea in the world, she reaches up and lightly strokes his cheek.

Adrien reaches up and laces his fingers through hers, squeezing them tentatively. He meets her gaze and holds it steady as he wraps his other hand around her waist and gently pulls her closer, as softly as if they're both standing in a dream.

"Can I kiss you?" he whispers.

Ladybug breaks into a dazzling smile. "God, I thought you'd never ask."


	5. The Discovery

**Author's Note** : This chapter…is twice as long as the others so far ahahaha :') I have so many feelings tbh and I'm sure you will too by the end, so as always, if you'd like to share them with me, please shoot me a message at chassecroise or stardusted on tumblr or leave a review on here! ❤

* * *

Ladybug leans in first. She has the advantage—she knows they've kissed before, and she's already memorized the curve of his face, the shape of his body. Being Ladybug makes her bold, and she confidently explores the contours of his face and neck with her lips as she pushes him against the wall.

But she soon finds that Adrien knows what he's doing too. He's intimately familiar with the way she moves, and glides in sync with her, anticipating exactly what she's going to do next. He wraps his arms tightly around her and pulls her closer, and she's breathless for a second as they lock gazes and she sees the intense longing in his eyes.

They're hungry for each other, and it's more satisfying than either of them could ever have imagined. It feels absolutely and unequivocally _right_ , like this is what was always meant to be.

Adrien pulls back first, overwhelmed by what's happening as he tries to take everything in. He looks at her, eyes sparkling in awe.

"Am I really awake? Is this really happening?"

Ladybug giggles and pushes a lock of hair out of his face. She looks at him fondly and says without thinking, "You look like a blushing little kitten. _Un petit minou._ "

Adrien's expression quickly changes from awe to curiosity, and then suspicion. _Does she know?_

It can't be. Ladybug's eyes are friendly, curious, gentle—and full of desire. Deep blue desire, reflecting the feelings inside Adrien's own heart, and it distracts him completely. He stops thinking as he leans back in to meet her lips, made bold by the knowledge that Ladybug wants him, _Adrien_ , as badly as he wants her. Perhaps it's as simple as that.

They fall onto the bed, Ladybug on top, and though Adrien has always called her princess, it's clear that she's a queen.

Adrien never thought that heaven would feel like a roller coaster, falling fast and hard as Ladybug's soft lips press against every part of his flushed skin, emotions flooding into his chest as his heart beats faster and faster. He never wants to stop falling, and he stares with reverence at her perfect face as she smiles down at him, the answers to all his questions about her identity behind her magical mask.

He reaches up and lightly runs his fingers down her right ear and touches her earring. "Ladybug, who are you? How do you know me? How do we know each other?"

Ladybug stops him by pressing her fingers against his lips. "I'm sorry, Adrien, but I can't tell you," she says, gently, but firmly as she sits up and moves to the side of the bed, looking away. "It's for both your safety and mine."

Adrien sighs. "I understand. I just—I really want to know, because I really, really like you. And—you obviously like me, but I can't believe it's because I'm a model, or because I'm Gabriel Agreste's son. I know you're not that shallow, and I don't believe you're a gold digger. So why? Why choose _me_?"

Ladybug is struck by his earnestness, the deep sense of yearning in his voice. How can she tell him that it's because he's perfect, because he's kind and sweet and everything she's ever dreamed about? How can she tell him that there's no logical reason _why_ she feels such a deep connection to him, she just _does_ , and for her, that's enough?

She especially has no idea how to explain to Adrien how she fell for him, because the one time they've interacted while she was Ladybug was when she saved him from The Mime—and she still remembers the way he looked at her that day, starstruck and silent. In retrospect, she should have known then how he felt about Ladybug. She wants to tell him, she really does. But it's not safe for him to know.

And if she's honest with herself, the real reason she doesn't want to tell him is because of the selfish fear that's gripped her heart. As Marinette, she gets to kiss Adrien on stage, fulfilling her own desires, even though she knows he doesn't feel the same way about her. But as Ladybug, she gets to fulfill both Adrien's desires and hers at the same time. He wants her—and she wants him—and that's all that matters.

So she shakes her head. "I wish I could tell you, but it would put us both in danger. And I can't risk any harm coming to you. You mean too much to me."

"I understand," says Adrien, his voice low as he hangs his head.

"I'm sorry—" begins Ladybug when she suddenly notices the clock, blanching white as she realizes that it's close to midnight. Adrien catches her arm as she jumps off the bed.

"Wait! Where are you going? Are you leaving already?"

She smiles sadly. "I have to, Adrien. It's past midnight. Time for Cinderella to go home."

"Does that mean I'm your Prince Charming?" he says, flashing a disconcertingly cat-like grin and bowing gallantly. It gives Ladybug pause for a minute before she starts laughing.

"I'll see you tomorrow! Farewell, _mon cher_. Sleep well," she says with a wink as she pulls out her yo-yo and springs out the window.

Adrien sighs with contentment as he watches her leap over the rooftops and disappear over the moonlit horizon. He might not know who Ladybug is yet, but this is an arrangement that he can live with for the moment. He just has to be careful not to look too infatuated around her when he's Chat Noir.

Plagg floats up beside him. "Your masked sweetheart smelled a lot like sugar and flour tonight."

Adrien rolls his eyes at the grumpy kwami. "All you think about is food, isn't it? At least you didn't say she smells like camembert."

Plagg shrugs his tiny shoulders. "I'm just saying. You're trying to figure out who she really is, and I'm sharing something that I observed. You should be grateful that I'm trying to help you."

"Thanks, Plagg, you've been super helpful," retorts Adrien. "I'm sure that information will be—"

He stops as he remembers a certain classmate whose family owns a bakery. A certain classmate who's been reminding him a lot of Ladybug lately. A certain classmate who has cerulean blue eyes and dark pigtails, who often has a faint cloud of cinnamon and caramel hovering around her whenever she walks past him.

"Very helpful, actually. Very helpful indeed."

* * *

Marinette collapses immediately onto her bed after she jumps into her room and de-transforms. She knows she should be exhausted, but she's filled with adrenaline and joy and an incredible sense of sheer satisfaction.

"That was the best night of my life!" she says, hugging her pillow and squealing while Tikki floats beside her with concern.

"I know you told Adrien that you're going to visit him again tomorrow, but are you sure that's a good idea? Look how tired you are!"

"But Tikki, he's so cute, and he likes me so much—and it's not like I used Lucky Charm, so my transformation won't wear off as long as I use it."

"But—"

"Hey, wait! Tikki, what would happen if I use Lucky Charm in a non-emergency situation? Can I do that?"

"Yes, you can use Lucky Charm outside the presence of an akuma, but you really shouldn't!"

"Why not?"

Tikki sighs. She's always been afraid when her Ladybug realizes that she can use Lucky Charm in situations outside of emergencies, because it often leads to rash decision-making and dangerous situations. Not all of her Ladybugs ever have the impulse to try, but it always happens at least once when her Ladybug is young, and Marinette is the youngest one there's ever been.

"If you do, there's a chance that you won't be able to use Lucky Charm again for 24 hours."

"But that doesn't make any sense. I've never had a problem using Lucky Charm twice in one day when there are multiple akumas."

"That's because Lucky Charm is _supposed_ to be used against akumas. As soon as you say _Miraculous Ladybug_ , the energy resets. But if you use it in a non-emergency setting, Lucky Charm won't start regenerating until you de-transform—and the longer you stay Ladybug, the longer it will take to reset."

Marinette nods. She's listening intently, but is still far too excited about the prospect of having a perfect date with Adrien courtesy of Lucky Charm to absorb the implications of this information.

"Okay, noted. So how does Lucky Charm work outside of battle? Like if I wanted to go on a date, would it whip up movie tickets, or a fancy dress?"

Tikki tells her the details and shakes her head as Marinette writes them down with excitement.

"Oh, Marinette, what am I going to do with you? And what about Chat Noir? When are you going to tell him about the play?"

Marinette looks up and frowns. In her excitement about Adrien, she's forgotten that she still hasn't done that. But she knows she shouldn't put it off any longer.

"Tomorrow," she says with conviction. "I'm going to tell him tomorrow, when we meet for our night patrol."

* * *

"Girl, you look wrecked! Are you getting sick?" says Alya with concern the next day, as Marinette slowly walks into the classroom, looking dazed and exhausted with dark circles under her eyes.

"I only got three hours of sleep last night," responds Marinette, breaking into another huge yawn.

"What? What were you doing all night?" Alya screeches.

"I was, uh, talking to a friend," says Marinette.

Alya raises her eyebrow. "Who could you possibly love more than me that you were talking to them for hours, so late at night?"

Marinette blushes bright red as Adrien turns to look back at them, having overheard the entire conversation. She avoids making eye contact with him and invents an excuse about a cousin in China and the time difference, but Marinette has never been good at making up complicated lies, and it's obvious to both Alya and Adrien that she isn't telling the truth.

Alya figures there's a good reason she's lying (knowing Marinette, she was probably up all night making a scrapbook of Adrien's latest photoshoot, which came out in Mode Magazine two days ago, and she just doesn't want to admit to it while he's sitting right in front of her), so she doesn't press the issue.

But Adrien knows why she's lying. Or at least, he thinks he does. He wishes there was some way of proving his suspicions. The best place to do it would be rehearsal, but Professeur Seydoux has a cold today and has canceled practice, so he has to wait another day. Not that he minds. He'll be seeing Ladybug tonight again anyway—not once, but twice. And he can hardly wait.

Sometimes, having a superhero alter ego can be pretty amazing.

* * *

From the very moment she wakes up in the morning Marinette is filled with a mixture of euphoria, contentment, and nervousness, swirling around from her head to her toes. She still can't quite believe that she actually went to Adrien's house last night, or that she read her love poem to him out loud, or that she _pushed him against a wall and made out with him_. Is this real life?

And yet she's jittery and restless at the same time, because even though she's excited about Adrien, she still has to tell Chat Noir about the play, and she's not sure how he's going to react to the news.

After staring at the back of his head the entire school day and wondering all the ways in which she could kiss him that she hasn't yet, it occurs to Marinette as the final bell rings that maybe she could actually ask Adrien for advice. It wouldn't be weird, right? He always knows the right thing to say to people. Surely he could help her figure out what to say to Chat.

She runs down the stairs and walks up to Adrien while he's waiting for his limo and taps his shoulder. He jumps and turns around and to his surprise, sees Marinette standing behind him.

" _Salut_ , Marinette! What's up?" he says with a smile.

Adrien can't believe how casual he's being about the whole thing, given that he was most likely making out with this girl the night before. He finds his eyes wandering to her lips, which seem a little swollen, like she's been kissed recently…but he could just be imagining things.

Marinette hesitates for a moment. "Adrien, can I ask you something?"

"Of course. You can ask me anything!" says Adrien as he places his hand on her shoulder with a bright smile.

Marinette wants to melt into a puddle on the floor. It should be illegal for someone to be this cute. But she has to focus—she can freak out once she gets home. She's here to ask Adrien a question. And if he's going to keep looking at her like that with that smile of his, she has to do it before she goes weak in the knees and falls over. She takes a deep breath.

"How do you tell a friend something that might hurt their feelings?"

Adrien considers. "Well, I think you should be as direct and honest as possible, but be kind."

Marinette nods. That makes sense. And she is nothing if not direct when she is Ladybug. She knew that Adrien would have the right answer. He always does.

" _Merci_ , Adrien!" she says, smiling brightly. "Thanks for the help! I'll, see you tonight—I mean, tomorrow!"

She waves and quickly scuttles away towards home, hoping Adrien hasn't noticed her verbal slip-up.

But if she were to look back, she would see him smirking at her rapidly retreating back. Because he did notice, and he knows exactly what she's talking about.

* * *

At half past nine, Chat Noir and Ladybug meet up for their weekly night patrol. Ladybug looks somber and serious the whole time, and for some reason, Chat Noir recalls the conversation he had with Marinette after school. He suddenly wonders if it has something to do with the awkward way Ladybug is acting, even though still has no definitive proof that they're the same person. And yet—something tells him he's about to find out.

He turns to look at Ladybug and wishes he could kiss her—it's a full moon above Paris and the stars are shining bright, but that would mean revealing his identity to her, and even though he'd like nothing more than to do that, he knows that now is not the time.

" _Buginette_ , you're very quiet tonight. Is something wrong?"

Ladybug sighs. She knows it's finally time to tell him the truth, and the best way to do it is to just rip it off like a bandage.

"Remember how I told you I wanted to talk to you about something earlier?"

"Of course. You never got the chance. Do you want to talk about it now?"

"Yes. It's really important—it's about something I'm doing at school."

Here it was, here was the proof—

"It's a play about the two of us, and I've been cast in it. As Ladybug, can you imagine?"

Chat calmly nods in acknowledgement, though he's screaming internally. His hunch was right—Marinette _is_ Ladybug! Things can only get better from here.

"So what's the problem, my lady?"

Is she going to admit that she's in love with her co-star, and that she's visiting him at night? That would make things even more interesting than they are already. And it would give him license to tease her, though to be fair, they tease each other enough already.

Ladybug takes a deep breath. She's prepared for this moment for the past few hours, but it's still not easy.

"The story is about how we fell in love while learning how to save Paris together, and well—I have to kiss you in the play, and I just—I'm so sorry, Chat."

He cocks his head, confused. This isn't the direction he was expecting her to go in. "Sorry? Why are you sorry?"

She sighs. This is the hard part.

"Because I know that you and I have never had those kinds of feelings for each other! Our flirting, our banter, it's just been the way we interact with each other. But my classmates who wrote the play, they think that it means that there's something going on between us."

Chat listens in silence, and Ladybug continues in a torrent of words.

"I wanted to tell you because I didn't want to see your feelings get hurt, in case you come to see the play. I know they're planning to invite the two of us to attend, and I still haven't figured out how to be in the play and the audience at the same time, but it's honestly so embarrassing—and I just wanted to apologize. I should have tried to change the script, but the boy playing Chat Noir, well—I really like him. And I think—I hope—that he likes me."

She trails off. She's not quite ready to tell Chat Noir about her night-time rendezvous to Adrien's room. In fact, she's not quite sure she'll ever be ready to tell him about that.

 _I know that you and I have never had those kinds of feelings for each other._

 _I didn't want to see your feelings get hurt._

 _It's so embarrassing._

 _I'm so sorry._

Chat Noir hears every single word, and each one feels like a tiny little stab in the heart. It's true that he's constantly flirting with Ladybug, telling her that they're destined to be together as she rolls her eyes and sighs. It's all harmless fun and he's never genuinely been serious about it, except the one time he came so close to telling her _J'taime_ on Valentine's Day.

So why does it hurt so much to hear her actually say it out loud, especially when he knows that she loves him as Adrien? She still wants him—just not all of him. Shouldn't that be enough?

 _How do you tell a friend something that might hurt their feelings?_

 _I think you should be as direct and honest as possible, but be kind._

"Chat Noir? Are you okay?"

What can he say? How does he respond?

He remembers Professeur Seydoux saying something about putting posters all over Paris, and so he says the first thing that comes to his mind.

"—I know. I've seen the posters."

Ladybug is surprised. "I'm sorry?"

"I've seen the posters for the show at your school! They're all over Paris. So you're playing Ladybug, huh? Do your classmates think you're doing a good job?"

"Oh! Well, I was kind of pushed into the role, and I don't know all my lines yet so we'll have to see—but wait, does that mean you know which _lycée_ I go to?!"

"Well, I do now," says Chat Noir, grinning brightly. "And the boy at your school—he must be the cat's pajamas, if you like him so much."

Ladybug blushes in the darkness even as she rolls her eyes at his pun. "I guess the cat'sout of the bag," she says, punching him lightly on the shoulder. She feels so much lighter now that she's told him the truth. He's taken it better than she could have ever hoped for.

"Thanks for being so understanding about this, kitty," she says. "I've been worrying about telling you this for a week. I guess there was no reason to be worried, huh?"

She turns to look at the clock tower directly across from their survey point, and notices that it's almost eleven. "Oh—! Chat Noir, I've got to go right now. I've got somewhere important to be."

"Does my lady have a secret rendezvous with her lover?" says Chat Noir, wiggling his eyebrows seductively.

"Like I would tell you!" retorts Ladybug, sticking out her tongue as she leaps away.

Chat Noir waits until she disappears before he leaves. He knows he has to be quick, because he knows exactly where she's going, and he needs to get there before she does.

* * *

Chat Noir leaps through his bedroom window and leans against the wall, his mind racing at all the pieces of the puzzle that have come together all at once.

Marinette Dupain-Cheng is Ladybug, the masked superhero and beloved savior of Paris. And she's in love with Adrien Agreste, so much so that she's willing to risk everything to visit him at night as Ladybug. And Chat Noir is her trusted partner, someone she respects but does not love.

And she's coming to Adrien's room to see him again within the next five minutes. For someone who's usually the responsible one between them, this is unbelievably reckless for her, and Chat Noir is not sure how to handle it.

He quickly de-transforms into Adrien, sliding down the wall and sitting on the floor as he feels himself unexpectedly starting to cry. Even though he's been in love with Ladybug for the longest time, he's realizing that he's been slowly falling for Marinette all this time as well, and he's beyond worried about what she's going to do when she finds out that Chat Noir and Adrien are one and the same.

Will she still feel the same way about him? What if she's disappointed? What if she feels betrayed? Adrien has to make sure that she doesn't find out the truth, even if it's the hardest thing he's ever done.

He can't take advantage of the fact that he knows Marinette's secret identity now, especially since she's put so much effort into keeping her two lives separate. He can't screw this up for her.

Adrien sighs as he thinks about the valentine she wrote for him—and rehearsal—and last night, which he still can't actually believe was real. God, it's going to be hard. But he can do it for her. He has to.

He closes his eyes and balls his hands into fists as he wishes for the courage and conviction to do whatever it takes to keep his princess happy, ignoring the tears slowly leaking down his face.

" _Bonsoir_ , _mon cher_!" says a cheerful, singsong voice from the window. Ladybug is here to see him again tonight, just like she promised she would.

Her demeanor has changed completely from before—there's no tension in her face, no hesitation. Clearly, she had been nervous about telling Chat Noir about the play. But she's happy now, standing here with Adrien. And her happiness is his happiness.

He pushes the negative thoughts from his mind. It's better to live fully in the present than to worry about the past or the future.

"Did you miss me?" she says, smiling brightly until she notices his tear-streaked face. "What's wrong?!"

Adrien wipes the last of his tears away. "Nothing, now that you're here."

"Are you sure?" she says, cupping his face, with her hands, her bright blue eyes wide with concern.

"Yes, of course," he responds. This is what he's always wanted, isn't it? To be with Ladybug, the one he loves. He can figure out how Marinette and Chat Noir fit into the picture later. In the end, both of them have two different sides to the same coin. It's just a question of matching them up at the right time.

She kisses him on the cheek and pulls back to look at him solemnly. "You don't really mean that. I know you too well."

He looks at her and smiles. "I'm fine, I promise."

"Well then, kiss me before it's midnight and I have to go home."

"I think you'd be beautiful even in rags, Cinderella," says Adrien with an adoring sigh.

"Okay, cheeseball. Shut up and kiss me," she commands with a cheeky grin, and he is all too happy to comply.


	6. The Big Reveal

_**Author's Note:**_ I'm allergic to angst, so I don't like to have my characters suffer for longer than necessary. And here's the proof :3 I had a lot of fun writing this chapter, and I hope you enjoy all the humor and fluff! As always, please leave me a comment here or a message at chassecroise on tumblr if you like it!

* * *

Even though it's close to midnight, Ladybug doesn't feel like leaving yet, and they cuddle underneath Adrien's comforter, limbs intertwined as they silently watch the stars.

Adrien turns to look at her. "Hey, can I ask you something?"

"Of course. You can ask me anything," she replies, echoing his own words from the morning back at him with a smile.

"I was wondering about Chat Noir."

She stiffens. "What about him?"

"You work so close together. Have you ever had feelings for him?"

She sighs and bites her lip. "I don't know. It's not that I don't like him—it's just that we're always bantering back and forth and I never really thought about it, because I love him as a friend. And, well—because my heart belongs to you."

She giggles as Adrien blushes in the darkness.

"Maybe if you weren't around, I'd think about it, because Chat Noir is pretty cute, even if he is way too overconfident and full of bravado."

"It's mean to say something like that and not reveal your true identity to me," he responds, eyebrows raised.

Ladybug smiles, feeling mildly guilty. " _Touché._ You got me there."

"Have you ever thought that Chat Noir might have feelings for you?"

She sits up straight and stares at Adrien, eyes wide. "Oh my god, I hope not. That would be terrible."

He looks at her with surprise. "Why?"

"If he does, I could have really hurt his feelings tonight! I-I kind of told him that I know he's never felt like that about me. But—now that you mention it, I've never actually asked him. It just never occurred to me that he really might."

At that, the clock strikes midnight, and Ladybug sighs and stands up. "I've gotta go."

Adrien squeezes her hand. "See you tomorrow night?"

She smiles and blows him a kiss. "Of course. See you then, _mon cher_."

* * *

After she leaves, Adrien lies awake all night, thinking about what she said. It's not that she doesn't _like_ Chat Noir, it's just that she's never considered him as an option. Because of _Adrien._

He's suspected for a while that Marinette had a bit of a crush on him, but he never expected it would all turn out like this. He's been cockblocking himself the whole time. It's the funniest thing.

"What if I visited her house as Chat Noir, reversed the situation? What would happen?" he murmurs, thinking out loud.

Plagg gags from the corner. "Please leave me out of your silly love problems, Adrien. I've been dealing with enough from you over the past few days."

Adrien scowls at the grumpy kwami. "Hey! Not fair. Do you see me whining about how much camembert I have to find for you all the time? Complain again and see what happens. I won't give you any for at least a week."

"Well, well! It looks like I've struck _monsieur's_ nerves."

"Go to sleep, Plagg."

"Fine."

Two minutes pass in silence before the kwami's wheedling, squeaky voice floats across the room once more.

"Adrien?"

"What is it now?"

"You weren't serious about the cheese, were you?"

"Good _night_ , Plagg."

* * *

The next afternoon, the cast of _My Fair Ladybug_ has their most successful rehearsal yet. Professeur Seydoux is nearly in tears at how well it's all going, and concludes practice by announcing that she is so proud that Marinette and Adrien seem to have finally understood their characters—and that she hasn't seen student actors as completely in sync as they are in years.

"Alright, man!" says Nino, giving Adrien a high five.

Alya, on the other hand, narrows her eyes at Marinette, who is practically glowing with pleasure. She grabs her by the arm and pulls her into a corner of the room.

"Girl, you're hiding something from me. When did you get so comfortable around Adrien? Don't tell me that you're secretly dating each other and you haven't told me!" she hisses, arms akimbo.

Marinette frantically looks around to see if Chloe is around, and even though she's not, she still hushes her friend.

"Shhh! No, it's nothing like that. It's just rehearsal, you know—practice makes perfect!" She tries to grin confidently at her friend, but Alya's not buying it.

"Mmm, I don't believe you. You're up to something. I can tell from the look in your eyes. And if you don't tell me, I'm going to figure it out sooner or later, because you're gonna be the one who tells me. You couldn't keep a secret to save your life when it comes to your feelings for that boy."

"I swear, Alya, it's nothing!"

"Nope. You're lying. But that's okay. Because I'm going to find out what it is."

"Oh, Alya, come on, don't you trust me?"

"When it comes to how silly you act around him? Not as far as I can throw you."

Alya shakes her head as her phone starts ringing. "Hold on, it's Maman. I've got to get to the hotel to help her. But don't think I'm done with you!"

She runs out of the theater and Marinette sighs in relief. Sometimes it's a real pain having an aspiring journalist for a best friend. She picks up her bag and starts to head out, when she overhears Professeur Seydoux yelling at someone over the phone.

"What do you mean? How could you be so irresponsible? You know how important this is!"

She runs up to the Professeur, concerned about how angry she seems and hopes that Hawk Moth isn't listening in. The last thing she needs today is another akumatised teacher.

"No, no, that's fine, just make sure you don't mess it up again. We can't afford another mistake!"

Professeur Seydoux hangs up and throws her phone into her purse.

"What's wrong, Professeur? Is there something I can do to help?"

"No, Marinette—I'm sorry, but there's nothing you can do. The stupid printer printed the show posters in the wrong size, so now they won't be ready for another two weeks."

Marinette is confused. "But aren't they up already? A friend told me that he saw them all over Paris."

Professeur Seydoux shakes her head. "Of course not, that's impossible! They haven't even been printed yet. Your friend must have seen posters for another show and mistaken them for ours."

She rushes out the door with irritation, her good mood from rehearsal completely evaporated.

Marinette watches her rapidly retreating back, utterly confused.

If there are no posters out there, there's only one way that Chat Noir could have already known about the play.

He has to be a student at Francoise-Dupont.

And judging by a conversation she had with a certain Adrien Agreste last night, Marinette's pretty sure she knows who it might be.

She walks out of the school and sees Adrien sitting on the bottom of the steps, leaning down to put something into his bag. But as she comes closer, she sees that he's not putting anything in—he's just talking to it. But why would he be talking to his bag?

And that's when she sees it: the tiny creature peeping out of the flap, just as his limo pulls up. Small and black, with laser green eyes and pointy black ears that look like a cat, smirking until Adrien hisses at it and shoves it back inside before getting into the car.

Marinette watches as the limo quickly drives away, and it all comes rushing to her at once.

And she's _furious._

* * *

That night, she swings into Adrien's room without preamble.

" _Ladybug_ ~ !" he says as soon as he sees her, blushing a sweet pink that almost makes her forget that she's here because she's livid at him.

She scowls. "Don't get cute on me. Where is it? Where is it hiding?"

Adrien is completely baffled. "What are you talking about?"

"Your kwami. _**CHAT NOIR**_ _."_

Adrien's eyes go wide and he starts stammering nervously and walking backwards, trying to make excuses.

But Ladybug is too fast for him, and she grabs his hands and pulls them up to her face.

His ring shines brightly in the moonlight, and she looks at it before dropping his hands and glaring fiercely into his eyes.

"So you know, then. Who I really am."

"Yes. You're—you're Marinette," breathes Adrien. "Marinette Dupain-Cheng."

"Why didn't you tell me? How long have you known?"

Adrien sighs and hangs his head.

"Don't get too angry at him, Ladybug. He only just figured it out last night," interrupts a droll voice from the corner.

"Is that—?"

"Yes, that's Plagg."

" _Plagg_?"

"My kwami." Adrien calls the small black creature over and yells, "Plagg, _transforme moi!"_

And Ladybug watches in astonishment as the boy she loves transforms into her best friend and partner-in-crime-fighting right in front of her eyes. He stands in front of her and gives her a cheeky little wave.

"Hi, Buginette. _C'est moi, Chat Noir_."

Ladybug stands in silence and stares at him, trying to reconcile the fact that Adrien and Chat are one and the same. And the fact that he already knew about her secret identity before she knew his.

"Cat got your tongue?" he says, with a small smile.

She presses her palm against her face, groaning. "Why are you like this? How are the two of you the same person?"

Chat Noir shrugs casually, though his bright green eyes are tense.

"By the way, Plagg was right—I only figured out who you were yesterday. When you told me about the play during our night patrol."

"Why didn't you say anything then?"

"You've always been so serious about keeping our secret identities separate. I didn't want to say anything because it was so important to you."

"But—when I was telling you about my feelings for Adrien—for _you!_ I was rejecting you and accepting you at the _same time_ —I just—my god, this is so confusing!"

She groans and sits back down on the side of his bed and buries her face in her hands.

Chat Noir sits beside her. "Hey," he says softly. "Look at me."

She puts her arms down and slowly meets his eyes. And as she does, she can see Adrien peeking out at her from behind the bright green mask. Gently, he takes her hands in his.

"It doesn't have to be that complicated. You like Adrien. And I like you. We can figure this out. It's just two different sides of the same coin."

She nods. "You're right. And it seems so obvious now. How did neither of us figure this out before?"

"Well, I don't know about you, but I've been suspicious for a while now. Especially when I noticed your earrings in class the other day."

"You were watching me in class? How did I not notice? I stare at you all the time!"

He shrugs. "I guess you weren't paying attention."

Ladybug laughs in disbelief and stands back up, waving her arms around. "This is all so weird. Don't you think this is weird?"

Chat Noir grins. "Just a little bit." And then a new idea suddenly strikes his fancy, and he stands up to face her.

"Hey, um—I've got a weird question. Can you de-transform?"

She looks at him curiously. "You mean, right now?"

"Yes."

"But why?"

"I just—I just want to try something. Just humor me."

"Okay," says Ladybug, shrugging. She finds it an odd request, but the night has been strange enough, and it can't get much weirder than this.

So in a flash of bright light, Ladybug is gone, and in her place is Marinette. Just plain Marinette, standing in front of Chat Noir.

He takes a deep breath and laces his fingers through hers as he looks into her eyes, and Marinette finds herself blushing in the darkness.

"Can I kiss you?" he says, earnest and tender.

"Why are you asking me again?" she responds, confused.

"Because I know you're okay with kissing Adrien, but I don't know if you're okay with kissing Chat Noir."

He lets her hands go and looks down.

"I understand if you don't want to. I just thought maybe, it was worth a try—"

Marinette smiles. "Oh, _mon petit minou._ You don't need to ask."

She leans up and cups her hands around his face, pulling him into a deep and gentle kiss.

They pull back, and she finds her voice once more. "Now you de-transform," she says.

Chat grins. "Your wish is my command."

In a flash of green light, it's just Marinette and Adrien, holding hands in the moonlight.

And when they kiss again, it tastes as sweet as candy and as right as fate.


	7. The Next Day

**Author's Note** : I LOVE POST REVEAL SHENANIGANS SO MUCH (and I hope you do too!) Enjoy reading and please leave comments, kiddos. Have fun!

* * *

It's close to 1 am when Marinette reluctantly gets up and tells Adrien she has to go home, even though she herself doesn't really want the night to end.

Adrien smiles at her, eyes sparking mischievously. "Hold on—don't go home yet. I have a fun idea."

She turns to look at him, curious. "What is it?"

"Let's visit the Eiffel Tower before they turn the lights off."

"But that's in fifteen minutes!"

"So what? You're Ladybug and I'm Chat Noir. We can get there in five."

Marinette laughs in delighted surprise. This is a side of Adrien that she's never seen, and now she's beginning to understand why Plagg chose him to be Chat Noir.

She smirks. "Bet I can beat you there. Tikki, _transforme moi!_ "

"That's a challenge! Plagg, _transforme moi!_ "

They leap out of Adrien's window and soar across the rooftops of Paris, doing their best to outpace each other. But there's a reason that Ladybug and Chat Noir are partners, and they are evenly matched. They reach the Eiffel Tower at the same time in two minutes flat, and spend the next three minutes leisurely swinging their way up the shining beams until they're near the top.

They sit on top of the trestles and smile at each other, legs dangling.

"Told you we'd get here before they turn the lights off! There are ten whole minutes left," says Chat Noir, looking pleased.

"And I definitely beat you here," says Ladybug, smug.

"My lady, you're amazing, but we definitely got here at the same time," responds Chat, raising an eyebrow.

Ladybug's eyes crinkle merrily and she starts giggling.

He looks at her with confusion. "What's so funny?"

"It's just—you're Adrien, you know? And I would never have imagined him—you—calling me _My Lady_."

Chat blushes. "Do you not like it? I can stop if you don't."

"No! It's fine—I just have to get used to it! Don't worry about it, _chaton_. If I can still call you that," she says, flashing a smile at him.

"I love all your nicknames for me," responds Chat, leaning forward with complete earnestness.

" _Merci_ , _mon petit minou,_ " says Ladybug, tickling his chin and sliding her hand down his arm to squeeze his hand. She leans her head on his shoulder and sighs with contentment as the lights on the tower go off.

* * *

"This is the third day in a row you've been falling asleep in class, Marinette!" scolds Alya the next day. "What's going on?"

In the seat below them, Nino is having a similar conversation with Adrien. "Dude, you're not looking so good. Are you getting enough rest?"

"It's the bakery, Alya!" says Marinette, as Alya shakes her head in disapproval. "Maman and Papa have just had a lot of extra orders lately, and I've been staying up late to help them."

"I, uh—I've been taking an extra Physics course online," says Adrien. "I thought it sounded interesting, but it's a lot more work than I expected it to be," he adds, with a bashful grin.

He pointedly avoids eye contact with Marinette, who he can tell is staring at the back of his head with raised eyebrows. Still, he can practically see the words she's thinking hovering in the air in front of him. _An online physics course? That's the best excuse you could come up with?_

Though, to be fair, he's not wrong. Between the two of them, they have been exploring the natural limits of physics on a regular basis as the two teenage masked superheroes of Paris for the past year. Magic, it turns out, has an interesting effect on what those limits are.

It occurs to Adrien suddenly that they've only explored those limits when it comes to crime fighting. But not when it comes to other more… _pleasant_ activities. He makes a note to himself to change that, soon.

"Wow, I guess you really like physics, huh?" says Nino, interrupting his thoughts.

"Yeah, it's—ah, it's a lot of fun. There's a lot I still don't know, though. I have a lot to learn," responds Adrien in what he hopes is a convincingly studious tone of voice, rubbing his hair.

"But dude, you're always so busy, you should take a break and take some time off! Don't let something like physics wear you down."

Out of the corner of his eye, Adrien spots Marinette valiantly trying to hold back her giggles, and decides it's time to have some fun. He turns around slightly so that she can see his face more clearly, and wiggles his eyebrows at Nino with a smirk before sliding his eyes to look at her sideways.

"Oh, it doesn't wear me out at all. In fact, I can't _wait_ to do some experiments tonight."

Nino stares at his friend with utter bafflement as Marinette bursts into uncontrollable peals of laughter and the teacher scolds her for disrupting the class.

Alya says nothing, but simply observes the entire exchange in suspicious silence.

* * *

After class is over, the cast and crew of _My Fair Ladybug_ heads to the theater to work on constructing the set pieces. All hands are on deck: Nathanaël is painting the backgrounds, Rose and Juleka are working on costumes, and Nino and Alya are in the control booth working on setting up lighting and sound, while Marinette and Adrien discuss stage blocking with Professeur Seydoux and Mylene, who has been tapped to be assistant director.

Professeur Seydoux motions at Adrien first. "So Chat Noir, for your big entrance at the beginning, I want you to enter from stage left. The spotlight's going to going to be on you and there's going to be a musical cue as well. The whole audience is going to have their eyes on you, so make sure to enter with confidence."

Adrien frowns. "No, I don't think so—I think Ladybug's entrance should be more heroic and exciting than mine. I don't need a musical cue. Give it to her."

"But you're the male lead of the play—your entrance needs to have as much of an impact on the audience as hers," says Professeur Seydoux.

"And Ladybug will have a musical cue of her own, so you don't need to worry about that," adds Mylene.

"Still, Ladybug should be the main focus."

Marinette shakes her head and looks him straight in the eye. "Adrien, Chat Noir is just as important to the story as Ladybug. If not more."

"I know, but he's—"

"Just as important. And I think Chat Noir should get an extended intro, to get the audience just as excited about seeing him in action for the first time as Ladybug was."

"But Chat Noir wasn't that impressive the first time he and Ladybug met."

"The audience doesn't need to know that. And that's also not true at all. He was amazing. And he should know that."

She quickly glances sideways at the others and adds, "You saw what Alya wrote in the script. It's an incredible moment! Ladybug couldn't have saved the day without him."

Adrien smiles. "I guess you're right. It would have been pretty _cat_ astrophic if Chat Noir didn't show up," he says with a wink.

Mylene and Professeur Seydoux exchange glances. For some reason, it doesn't quite feel right to interrupt the moment, even though they need to continue blocking out scenes.

Luckily, they are all interrupted by the sounds of something crashing in the control booth, followed by a rather disheveled looking Nino and Alya standing up and grinning with embarrassment.

"What happened? Is everything okay?" calls the Professeur, concerned.

"Yeah, yeah—we're fine!" says Nino unsteadily, a faint shadow of lipstick clearly visible on his cheek.

Adrien unsuccessfully tries to muffle his laughter as Marinette raises her eyebrows in surprise and makes eye contact with a blushing Alya. It looks like she's not the only one with a few secrets up her sleeve these days.

* * *

After rehearsal, the theater empties out quickly, though Marinette lingers to talk details about the posters with Professeur Seydoux and is the last one to leave.

As she walks out of the theater, she's surprised to see Adrien still standing there. She thought that his limo would have showed up by now. But she's not complaining. A moment alone with Adrien Agreste in the daytime is a rare and lucky chance.

"Hey, princess, _chat va_?" says Adrien with a cheeky smile and a bow as Marinette walks up to him.

"Ughhh, you're such a nerd," says Marinette, wrinkling her nose at the pun, but smiling in spite of herself.

"It's been a long time since you've called me that. Do you remember? It was when Nathanaël got akumatised. You were showing off so much! Saying you'd be my knight, or whatever."

Adrien laughs as she imitates the way he flexed his arms.

"Well, I am! And I wasn't _that_ bad."

"Oh no, believe me, you absolutely were," says Marinette, rolling her eyes.

"I can't believe I ever thought that you were shy," responds Adrien, sticking out his tongue.

"And I can't believe I ever thought you were a serious person!"

Adrien waves his hand dismissively and tosses his head. "Well, to be fair, most people don't know I love puns."

"And they're better off for it," she says, poking his nose.

"Hey! My puns are incredible."

"I'm just speaking the truth." She lowers her voice and looks around to make sure that nobody is listening. "So…about tonight. Your place or mine?"

Adrien cocks his head, considering. "Well, you're always the one who comes over. Why don't I visit tonight? The food's better at your place, anyway."

"Glutton. But fine, my place it is," says Marinette as she smiles affectionately at him and watches his eyes glitter hungrily at the prospect of finally getting a taste of her parents' croissants and cookies.

She reaches up to ruffle his hair. "You're such a little _chaton_. How did I never notice before?"

Adrien shrugs. "I guess you weren't looking close enough."

"Hey, by the way, come as yourself."

"What?"

"I mean, come as Adrien. My parents like you a lot, there's no need to sneak up to my room as Chat Noir. Especially Papa. I think he'd probably have kittens if he found out that we're dating."

Adrien looks down. "I know, but…"

"But what?" asks Marinette with concern, rubbing his arm. "Is something wrong?"

"This is going to sound dumb, but I kind of wanted to…reverse what we've been doing? You know, you've been visiting me as Ladybug for the past few nights. I thought it might be fun to visit you as Chat Noir instead."

Marinette breaks into a smile and laughs with relief. "Is that it? We can still do that. You can transform in my room. I don't mind."

"But where's the surprise in that? That won't be nearly as fun."

"Hey, you're the one who said you wanted to _experiment_ ," says Marinette with a wink.

She grins as she leans up and pecks him on the lips. "And now you've got a few hours to get creative! Come by at 8. I'll be ready then. See you tonight!"

Marinette runs off towards her house and Adrien fondly watches her disappear into the distance, pigtails bouncing, until Plagg pokes his head out of his bag and interrupts his reverie.

"What does she mean by 'get creative'?"

"I don't know yet, Plagg. I'm still figuring it out."

"Well, you better figure it out quick. And get me some camembert while you're thinking. You haven't fed me all day!" wheedles the kwami.

"Do you ever think about anything other than cheese?"

"Never! And that's why my life is much less complicated than yours."


	8. The Date

_**Author's Note**_ : This is my little treat for the Marichat readers who've been sticking with me and this story! It's my own twist on all the favorite tropes. That said, I'm so sorry, I couldn't help but mess with them a little bit :'DDD

* * *

Gorilla is late to pick up Adrien, but he doesn't mind. He's thinking about what to do about tonight, when inspiration suddenly strikes him.

"I've got it!" he says, pumping his fist in the air. "She's gonna love this idea."

"What is it?" asks Plagg.

"You'll see," says Adrien with a grin. He puts the kwami back in the bag as his phone beeps. It's Nathalie, who has just sent him a text saying that Gorilla has been stuck in traffic for the past half hour, but will be there in the next five minutes.

"Perfect!" he says out loud to no one in particular before he runs back inside the school to grab something, and comes back out just as Gorilla arrives.

* * *

Back at Marinette's, Tikki floats by her side as she watches her take Adrien's pictures down and prep her room.

"Marinette, don't forget to change your laptop screen!" she says.

Marinette laughs. "Don't worry, I remember."

But Tikki still looks slightly agitated. "Marinette?"

"Yes, Tikki, what is it?"

"It's fine for you and Adrien to meet up again tonight, but I think both of you should take a break for a few days at least! You need your rest to do well in school, and to fight against the akumas. I'm worried about how much you're pushing yourself!"

"I'll be fine, Tikki!" she protests. "Don't worry so much about me."

"Okay. So what are your plans for tonight?" asks Tikki. "Do you have a surprise for him?"

Marinette grins. "Well, it kind of depends on him, but I've got a backup plan."

"And what is that?"

"You'll see!" she replies as her phone rings. It's Alya.

"Hey girl," says Marinette. "So, Nino, huh? How long has that been going on?"

Alya sighs. "Girl, don't even. It's a long story. I'm sorry I didn't tell you before, but there just wasn't a good time! What are you doing tonight? Can I come over?"

"Sorry, but tonight's not a good night. I've got other plans. But tell me about it in class tomorrow!"

"What?" screeches Alya. "It's a school night! Where are you going?"

Marinette looks at Tikki with panic.

 _What should I tell her?_ she mouths to the kwami, who shrugs and frowns.

"I'm sorry, but I can't tell you!"

"Girl, are you serious? Now I know you're hiding something from me."

"It's nothing, I promise! It's super boring. I'll tell you in class."

"Mmhmm."

"I'll see you tomorrow?"

"Fine. Talk to you then. Later, gator."

Marinette sighs and looks down as she hangs up. She wants to tell Alya the truth, but it's not the right time yet. There are so many things that she still has to figure out before she tells her anything about what's going on.

But knowing Alya, she probably doesn't have much time. Her friend has a nose for when something interesting is going on, and even though Marinette's been able to hide the truth about Ladybug from her, she's not sure she's going to be able to do the same when it comes to her new relationship.

It's one of the problems that come along with wearing her heart on her sleeve—she couldn't hide her fondness for Adrien if she tried, and to be honest, Marinette doesn't really want to hide it. She just doesn't want Alya to know that he's coming over to her house to make out with her. At least not tonight.

* * *

Around 7:45pm, Adrien shows up at the bakery, and Sabine opens the door.

"Oh, Adrien! It's so nice to see you again! It's been far too long. Marinette has been talking about you non-stop for the past three days."

Adrien blushes. "Really? I hope she's been saying nice things."

Tom comes out of the kitchen and comes over to pat him on the back.

"Well, she told us that you like croissants and cookies, so we made you a whole basket!"

Adrien's eyes sparkle with anticipation as Sabine goes into the kitchen and brings the basket back out, which is massive and filled with at least six different kinds of pastries and cookies.

"Papa!" calls Marinette from the top of the stairs. "You're so embarrassing! Adrien doesn't need a whole basket of croissants!"

Adrien grabs the basket and hugs it to his chest. "That's what you think! I'm eating all of these."

Sabine and Tom laugh. "So, why are you here tonight?" asks Sabine. "Working on a project?" she says with a knowing wink.

" _Mamaaaaan_!" says Marinette, groaning.

Adrien smiles. "Actually, we're going to be rehearsing some scenes for the school play."

"Oh yes!" says Sabine. "Marinette said that the two of you are playing the leads. That must be so exciting, the two of you playing Ladybug and Chat Noir! Are you enjoying it?"

Adrien thinks about all the things that have happened since they've been cast in their roles and smiles. "Enjoying" doesn't quite describe the roller coaster they've both been riding over the past few days.

"Yes, I am! It's been a lot of fun so far." He exchanges knowing glances with Marinette.

"Come on, Adrien. Upstairs!" she says, motioning at him.

"It was nice seeing you again, Madame Cheng! Thank you for the pastries," says Adrien before following Marinette up the stairs.

As soon as they get into her room, Marinette puts a book on top of the trap door.

"What are you doing?" asks Adrien.

"Well, you probably didn't notice last time you were here, but my parents were very excited about you visiting me! They kept poking their heads up here. And I definitely don't want that happening tonight."

Adrien laughs. "Does that mean what I think it means?"

Marinette smirks. "Up to you."

"Well, Cinderella, your Prince Charming is here," he says, kissing her hand.

"You're lucky you're so cute, or I'd throw you off my balcony right now for being so cheesy," says Marinette, giggling as she shakes her head.

"So violent! No wonder you're so good at Ultimate Mecha Strike."

"Well it's lucky I am, or Max might have pulverized us that day!"

"True. You do have a way with machines."

"That's right, I'm the best."

"If I recall correctly, I told you that day that you and I were made for one another."

" _Stop_ ," groans Marinette, lightly punching him on the shoulder.

"So, changing the subject—you look really nice tonight," says Adrien. "I really like your dress."

"Thank you," replies Marinette, tucking a lock of carefully curled hair behind her ear. "I made it myself."

Adrien looks at again with new appreciation. It's a diaphanous wonder, the silvery skirt shimmering like starlight as it falls to her knees. The bodice is a deep crimson red, with delicate cap sleeves. It doesn't look manmade; if anything, it looks like it was made by a fairy—and she looks like one too.

"That's incredible! Do you know how talented you are?"

Marinette smiles at his earnest praise, which make the hours she spent designing and sewing it all worth the effort.

" _Merci_ , _chaton._ That means a lot to me."

They face each other and lapse into a mildly awkward silence. In the absence of the adrenaline rush that surrounded them last night, they're beginning to realize that the space between them is a new one, with a different kind of energy that they're only beginning to understand. What does it mean to be teenagers in love? And what does it mean to be teenagers in love, who are also superheroes, and partners?

"So."

"So."

"Now what?" asks Marinette.

"Well, a certain someone told me to get creative, so I did."

"Okay?"

"So I need you to turn around and close your eyes."

Marinette laughs. "Are you going to transform? I've already seen you do that! Why do I need to close my eyes for that?"

"Shhh. Just do it," he says, placing his hands on her shoulders and spinning her around.

"Okay, if you say so."

She closes her eyes, but to her surprise, she doesn't hear Adrien yell for his kwami, nor does she feel a rush of magic sweeping across the room. Instead, all she hears is the sound of Adrien unzipping his bag…and then what sounds like taking off his shirt. She blushes at the thought of seeing him shirtless, but keeps her eyes closed, like she promised, though the temptation to open them is almost unbearable.

After several minutes, Adrien finally says, "Okay, now open your eyes."

What Marinette sees in front of her when she does is a fascinating sight: Adrien, dressed in his Chat Noir costume for the play, but only some of it: just the mask, the ears, and the tail. Along with his long sleeved black shirt and jeans, he's half Adrien, half Chat Noir, and Marinette finds it, well, very attractive.

He cocks his head sideways and grins at her. "What do you think, my lady?"

She smiles. "Okay, I'm into this." She kicks off her heels and saunters up to him barefoot, playing with one of the cat ears before grabbing his collar and pulling him close, lightly brushing her lips against his.

As she pulls back, Adrien breaks into a very Chat-like grin, and she whispers, "Oh, I am _definitely_ into this."

As she pushes him onto the bed and starts kissing his neck, he wraps his arms around her waist and pulls her closer, his hands brushing against her skin as the back of her bodice crinkles up. His fingers are warm against her cold skin, and she murmurs with pleasure as he slides them up her spine.

Her headband falls on the floor and his leather tail gets tangled somewhere between the folds of her skirt and her legs, but they are so wrapped up in one another that neither of them even notices.

In fact, Marinette and Adrien are so absorbed in each other that they don't even hear Sabine calling to Marinette that Alya has come over to return a library book that she borrowed from her.

And they don't hear Alya climbing up the stairs, calling Marinette's name.

And they don't hear her opening the trap door and Marinette's history book thudding against the wooden floor.

But they **do** hear Alya shriek "WHAT THE _HELL_ , MARINETTE?" as she sees them wrapped around each other on her bed, legs tangled, hair messy, completely oblivious to the outside world, and they both fall off the bed in complete shock.

Adrien's tail unhooks from his belt and his cat ears slide sideways, the mask lopsided, while Marinette's carefully done half ponytail has come undone entirely, with loose strands hanging limply from the hair tie, tangled up in knots.

Both sport bright red cheeks, but it's hard to tell whose cheeks are redder.

Alya turns to Marinette and waves her arms around wildly. "Is _this_ what you meant when you said you had something "boring"to do tonight?"

"Alya! We—we can explain!" says Adrien, trying to defuse the situation, but failing.

Sabine and Tom run upstairs at all the ruckus and take in the scene.

"Oh, my," says Sabine, trying to cover her giggles with her hand as she turns to her husband. "Honey, it would appear that Adrien is quite the _tomcat_ , isn't he?"

"It certainly does, Sabine."

Marinette wails with embarrassment as Tom's eyes crinkle merrily and he bursts into laughter.

Alya turns to look at Adrien's getup and stares as she takes it all in. "Is that your costume from the play?!" she asks with astonishment. "What is going on here?"

She shakes her head as Adrien takes off the mask and sheepishly nods while Marinette buries her face in a pillow.

"Actually, don't tell me. For once, I'm not sure I even want to know what's happening."


	9. The New Normal

_**Author's Note**_ : First of all, thanks so much to everyone who's left comments and favs on this story! It means a lot to me to have your feedback, and I read each and every single one! This is the first extended fanfic I've written in years, and it's been so much fun seeing everyone react to it. We are now at the halfway point of this story, but don't worry- it's not going to end right away! :))

* * *

Sabine turns on the lights in Marinette's room and Tom kindly asks if either of them would like some water, as though he's just come upstairs to make conversation with the kids instead of walking into the most embarrassing moment in the history of the world.

He is met with silence.

"I'll take that as a yes," he says, retreating back down the stairs with his wife so that the kids can have some time to recover. He remembers with amusement the time Uncle Cheng found him and Sabine in a similar position inside a broom closet at her cousin's wedding, though both of them had been nineteen and in university at the time.

Tom makes a mental note to have a certain conversation with Marinette, though it occurs to him that perhaps his daughter already knows a lot more than he did at her age.

As the trap door closes above Sabine and Tom, Alya whips her head to glare at the guilty couple.

"So, how long has this been going on?"

Marinette and Adrien make eye contact and converse silently. It's a tricky line they have to cross right now, and a delicate balance they have to strike. It'll involve telling parts of the truth while leaving out significant details, for the safety of everyone involved.

Marinette nods at Adrien to be the one to speak up. It'll make more sense if he does.

"Um…since the first rehearsal, when we had to kiss. I, uh, I asked her out right after that."

Alya looks at Marinette, eyes narrowed. "I knew it. I knew you were hiding something from me!"

She turns back to Adrien. "And the Chat Noir costume?"

Adrien shrugs. There is no explanation that he can think of that could possibly sound normal to anyone.

Thankfully, Marinette cuts in. "Honestly, that would take way too long to explain."

Alya shakes her head and waves her arms. "That's fine. I don't need to know everything. But I can't believe that you didn't tell me you were dating Adrien! Why would you keep such a big secret from your best friend? Especially when you knew I was dating Nino!"

"I'm so sorry, Alya! I was going to tell you soon, it just wasn't the right time."

Alya is about to continue scolding Marinette when she notices Adrien's eyes, which are wide with concern.

She sighs. "Well, I'm still mad at you for lying to me about tonight, but we can talk about it tomorrow. I'm gonna give the two of you some space. See you at school."

She goes back down the stairs, and finally, Marinette and Adrien are alone again.

They sit beside each other on her bed in stunned silence until Adrien suddenly starts laughing.

"What's so funny?" asks Marinette, completely confused.

"I'm just thinking about the look on everyone's faces. I mean—can you imagine what it must have looked like for everyone? They probably think we're into cosplay or something."

Marinette groans. "I'm so, so sorry. I never thought that tonight would end up like this. This is so embarrassing!"

Adrien sobers up and turns to look at her, squeezing her hand. "Hey. It's okay. There was always a chance that something like this would happen. But there is one thing—"

"What?"

"Your dad, he won't kill me, will he? I can still take the croissants home?"

"Oh, no, never," says Marinette, finally cracking a smile. "Like I told you before, he's probably even more excited than me about us dating. But I wouldn't be surprised if he tries to start telling me about the birds and the bees tomorrow."

* * *

The next day, Nino grins knowingly at Adrien as soon as he sits down at the desk. He turns around and looks at Alya, who shrugs. "Nino is my boyfriend and he's your best friend, so of course I told him."

Nino laughs. "Soooo Marinette, huh? It took you long enough! She's had a crush on you for months now."

"Yeah, I, uh, finally figured it out."

"Well, good for you! I've been running out of ways to make it more obvious without pushing the two of you in a janitor's closet or something."

"Wait, you were trying to set us up? Since when? How come I never noticed? You suck at being a wingman, Nino."

"I mean, I guess I haven't been trying too hard. I've been a bit distracted lately," says Nino sheepishly, looking up at Alya and winking.

Adrien rolls his eyes. "I know. I was in the theater yesterday."

"But anyway, that's good for the play, isn't it? Ladybug and Chat Noir in love—and now the two leads playing them are dating! I am a master at casting the right actors for the right parts," responds Nino with pride.

" _Nino_ , it was Mylene's idea to cast Marinette as Ladybug, not yours. And it was my idea to cast Adrien as Chat Noir. Give credit where it's due," scolds Alya.

"You suggested it, but I agreed to it!" retorts Nino as Marinette walks into the classroom and sits down at her desk.

"Oho, what's this, a lover's quarrel?" she says with a grin.

"One more word, Marinette, and I'll tell Nino what Adrien was wearing last night. I'm still mad at you," responds a grumpy Alya.

Adrien and Marinette lock gazes and Adrien hastily motions at her to stop talking.

Later, as the class splits up for lunch, Nino and Alya walk off together, with separate lunch plans of their own. Though judging from the looks on their faces, Marinette suspects that between the two of them, they will be making fun of her and Adrien for a while.

She turns to look at Adrien. "Come have lunch at the bakery with me."

He looks at her, startled, but pleased. Nobody's ever invited him to have lunch before.

Marinette giggles at his expression. "Hey, don't be so surprised! We're dating, aren't we? This is our new normal. It's okay for you to come home with me for lunch. And maybe if you're around, Papa will stop trying to corner me and start awkward conversations. I was right about him trying to have a special talk with me today, and I don't need that to be happening over lunch."

"Okay," says Adrien. "But you should probably tell your parents to be careful, or I'm going to eat them out of bakery and home. I already finished all the croissants they gave me."

"I'll warn them," says Marinette with a laugh. "By the way…do you want to do a do-over of last night? Maybe I should come over to your place again. Something tells me we won't get interrupted, and I want to make it up to you."

Adrien smiles. "Well, if you're coming over to my place, you should probably come as Ladybug. It'll be easier to explain, since you don't need to come in the front door. More practical, too."

Marinette looks at him, eyebrow raised. "Are you trying to be practical, or is this just your way of saying that you just want to make out with Ladybug?"

"No!" stammers Adrien, blushing fiercely. "I just—I really like how you look in red, okay? And you're so strong and intelligent and beautiful—"

Marinette giggles and laces her fingers through his and plants a quick kiss on his cheek.

"Okay, okay! Ladybug it is."

"Wait, Marinette!" peeps a small voice from her purse.

"What is it, Tikki?"

The little red kwami floats out of Marinette's purse and in front of the two young people.

"I know the two of you are excited to be together, but you really should take a few days of rest. I'm worried about both of you if you spend every night together like this."

Adrien looks concerned. "Is Paris in danger?"

"No, but if its heroes aren't well rested, it's always more risky."

Adrien nods. "Okay. We understand."

"I'll promise to be careful!" says Marinette. "I promise, Tikki, after tonight, we'll take a break from the night time visits."

* * *

That night, Ladybug shows up to Adrien's room, and she sees that he's turned it into a lush indoor garden, with flowers everywhere and candles throughout. As he steps out of the shadows, she can see that he's even wearing a suit, a classy single breasted dark grey number she recognizes from Gabriel Agreste's latest fashion spread.

"What is this?" she says, laughing with delight.

"I'm sorry about how last night turned out too, so I wanted to do something romantic to make up for it. And I saw earlier that they were setting up a Garden of Eden themed photoshoot in one of the studios downstairs, so I snuck all the set pieces up here after they left. I'll put it back at the end of the night."

Ladybug smiles. "You're such a _charmeur_. I love it."

"Don't you mean " _chatmeur_?"

She sticks out her tongue. "I definitely did not. But I'm not dressed for something like this! You're in such a nice suit, and I'm in red spandex."

Adrien shrugs. "Bugaboo, you always look gorgeous to me. No matter what you're wearing."

"How can the son of a world famous stylist say something like that?"

Ladybug looks at her lovestruck boyfriend fondly. "But I guess there's no point in talking to someone with rose-colored glasses."

And then she remembers. She can use Lucky Charm even when she's not fighting an akuma. She's never tried it before, and she has no idea what will happen, but she decides to give it a go anyway.

"Wait. I have an idea. Lucky Charm!"

What happens next is something out of a fairytale. Immediately, Ladybug is surrounded by a cloud of sparkling red dust, and her outfit changes into a beautiful sleeveless A-line floor length crimson gown, with detailed black beading throughout. Even her mask changes to a slightly more ornate design, resembling a masquerade mask with glittering black curlicues at the edges.

Adrien looks at her in awe. "You look like a princess."

She smiles. "I feel like one, too."

"I didn't know that you could use Lucky Charm when we aren't fighting akumas," says Adrien, appreciating the charm's work.

"It's the first time I've done it, actually," says Ladybug. "I just found out that I could recently."

"You should use it more often," responds Adrien appreciatively.

Ladybug laughs. "Maybe I will!"

She looks around at the lush greenery throughout the room, which is beautiful, but makes it feel eerie in the darkness. "We need music. It's too quiet in here."

Adrien turns on the radio, and the pulsing beats of EDM flood the room.

He makes a face. "Sorry! That's not what I was expecting to come on. I thought this was the classical station."

Ladybug laughs. "That's okay, I like this much better anyway." She beckons at Adrien. "Come dance with me!"

She pulls him towards her and they dance around like they're in a club, moving wildly to the beat, their bodies in sync. It's a different kind of physicality than the one they're used to, but a very enjoyable one—and Ladybug finds herself wishing that there could be some excuse for her and Chat Noir to dance together on missions in fancy outfits while fighting akumas.

However, It soon becomes apparent that they're both completely overdressed for this particular activity, but they're having too much fun, and they keep dancing, song after song, until they're out of breath and their feet ache.

Finally, Ladybug plops down on his bed and yawns.

"Tikki was right. This is getting to be too much. I can't dance anymore, at least not in this dress."

Adrien turns to look at her, worried. "Are you okay? You should de-transform if you're feeling tired. I don't want to make you exhausted."

"Are you sure?" says Ladybug, hesitant.

"Of course. Do you wanna play Ultimate Mecha Strike instead? I've been practicing. I bet I can beat you."

"Hell yes! That's a challenge."

Ladybug de-transforms as Adrien pops open and sets up the game. They play five games in a row, Marinette winning four of them, when her phone buzzes. When she picks it up, she sees that it's a text from Alya.

As she reads it, her face blanches.

"What is it?" asks Adrien with concern.

"The school theater—it's on fire."


	10. The Fire

As Marinette and Adrien run towards Francoise-Dupont, they can see a large crowd of people standing outside the theater entrance while the firefighters are battling the flames. Marinette looks around frantically for Alya before finding her standing by Profeseur Seydoux near the entrance, filming everything as the Professeur looks on in dismay.

"What happened?!" she yells over the melee. "Is it an akuma attack?"

"No," says Alya. "From what we heard, something went wrong with the wiring on the lights in the theater and it sparked and spontaneously lit up."

"Is anyone hurt?" asks Adrien, tensed and ready to run inside and help.

Alya shakes her head. "No—luckily nobody was inside. But even if it's not an akuma attack, I wish Ladybug was here! She could fix all of this and make everything go back to normal."

Adrien and Marinette exchange glances and nod.

"Alya, I'll be right back, I just need to call my parents and tell them that everyone is fine," says Marinette.

"What? Oh, okay, that's a good idea. Tell them to tell _Maman_ that I'm fine too!"

"I will!"

Marinette grabs Adrien's hand and pulls him behind the side of the building.

He looks at her, worried. "Are you okay to transform again?" he asks. "Does Tikki have enough energy left?"

"I think so," she replies, opening her purse and looking inside. "How are you feeling, Tikki?"

"I'm fine, Marinette!" peeps Tikki, though Marinette can tell how exhausted she is, and feels guilty. Still, there's no time to feed the kwami anything—she's out of cookies.

She turns back to Adrien. "Let's go," she says, and they transform and run back to the scene.

"Ladybug! You're here!" calls Alya with relief, running up to her with her camera.

"Yes, Chat Noir and I are here to help the firefighters settle everything down. Stay calm, and everything will be fine soon."

"Oh, thank god, you can make everything return to normal," responds Professeur Seydoux. "Thank you for coming here so quickly."

Chat and Ladybug run inside and start helping the fire fighters put out the flames. Between the two of them and their super strength, the flames are soon put out, but the theater is a disaster, completely gutted.

Ladybug looks at the damage and shakes her head. "Only Lucky Charm can fix this."

Chat nods. "You're right."

"Okay, let's do this—Lucky Charm!"

Nothing happens.

"What's going on?" asks Chat, confused.

Ladybug frowns. "I'm not sure—let me try again. Lucky Charm!"

Once again, nothing appears, and then she remembers Tikki's warning about using Lucky Charm when she didn't need to, and the risk that she wouldn't be able to use it again for at least 24 hours.

And now her school is in trouble, and she can't do anything about it.

She's furious at herself, and she runs back out of the theater, followed closely by Chat Noir.

She stops by the side of the building and sinks to the ground, hands balled into fists and her face tucked into her knees, holding in an angry scream. How could she have been so _stupid_?

Chat kneels beside her and touches her arm.

"Hey, what's wrong? Why isn't Lucky Charm working?"

She looks up at him, eyes filled with angry tears. "It's all my fault. I shouldn't have used it before! I used it to make a dress, and now I can't use it at all. Tikki warned me that if I used Lucky Charm when I didn't actually need to, it could take an entire day to reset. And she was right."

Chat rubs her shoulder. "Don't worry, the firefighters have it all under control. Everything's going to be fine."

"But if I was able to use Lucky Charm, I would have been able to restore the theater back to the way it was!"

"It's not your fault, there was no way that either of us could have ever predicted that something like that was going to happen tonight. You've got the power of good luck, not the power to tell the future. You just wanted our date to be perfect."

"But now the theater's ruined. And I can't use Lucky Charm to set it back to normal. What's going to happen to the play now? Professeur Seydoux is going to be so disappointed!"

Chat pauses, considering their options. And then it strikes him.

"Hey, wait—can't you still do that? I mean, not tonight, but once your power resets. You can come back here tomorrow night and use Lucky Charm after the reset time passes. And _voila_ —the theater will be back to normal!"

Ladybug's mind stops spinning and her panicked thoughts comes to a dead stop as she focuses in on what he's saying. He's right. He's absolutely, one hundred percent right, and she can't believe that she didn't think of that before. _Of course_ she can still fix things. She's Ladybug! She just has to be a little bit more patient.

And to make sure that she never does anything like this ever again—because next time, the answer might not turn out to be so simple.

Ladybug looks at her clever kitty with a grateful smile. " _Chaton_ , you're a life saver! I never would have thought of that, but it's the perfect solution. What would I do without you?"

Chat Noir beams at her and extends a hand to help her stand up. "Well, we're a team, right? I'll always have your back, no matter what happens."

Ladybug looks up at him ardently and caresses his cheek. "I love you, you know that?"

"Yeah?" says Chat, trying to grin casually at the fact that his lady has just told him she loves him. But he can't hide his excitement, and immediately loses his cool.

"I—I love you too!" he says breathlessly, his cheeks flushing bright red under the mask, visible even in the darkness.

"Oh, come here, you silly cat," says Ladybug with an impatient sigh, grabbing his collar with both hands and pulling his face towards hers, pressing her lips against his as she leans into his chest.

* * *

When Alya notices that neither Marinette nor Adrien have returned yet, she starts to worry. At the back of her mind, she also has a nagging feeling about what it could possibly mean, but she pushes it away. She has to find her friends first.

Now that the fire has been put out, she walks around the perimeter of the building, when she notices Ladybug and Chat Noir talking to each other, and sees that Ladybug looks distressed. Immediately, her investigative instincts kick in, and she hides herself behind a large bush, her eagerness to get footage of them momentarily overriding her worry for her friends.

Though she can't hear them, she can clearly see Chat Noir comforting Ladybug and whispers, "I knew it!" under her breath. "Marinette, you were wrong—Chat Noir and Ladybug _are_ together! And now, I'm going to get the pictures to prove it."

Alya captures several photos of them embracing, cheering internally with glee that she finally has visual evidence to prove to Marinette without a shadow of a doubt that the masked superheroes of Paris really are dating. And then she remembers that the very reason she's out here is because she can't find her, and starts to worry again.

She watches and waits for Ladybug and Chat Noir to break apart, wondering what the right moment would be to go up to them and ask them if they can help find her friends. She doesn't want to interrupt their private moment, but she could really use their assistance.

She moves closer so that she can hear their conversation.

"We need to go back, Chat Noir. Alya's going to start wondering what happened to us."

"What should we tell the others about the theater still being damaged?"

"We should tell them that Ladybug and Chat Noir told us that they're going to come back tomorrow afternoon, that Ladybug didn't think it was a good idea to use Lucky Charm in the dark."

"Will they buy that? We've fought akumas at night before."

"It's the best explanation I can think of."

"That's fair. But tomorrow afternoon still isn't 24 hours. Will you be able to use Lucky Charm again by then?"

"I think so. If I give her enough cookies, Tikki will definitely recover in time."

"Ah, so cookies are your camembert."

"What?"

"I'll explain later."

Alya's confused. Why are Ladybug and Chat Noir talking about themselves in the third person? It also sounds like Ladybug wasn't able to use Lucky Charm, which doesn't make sense. But those details are unimportant to her main goal, which is to find her friends. It's possible that she's missed some details of the conversation, but she can figure it out later.

Alya starts to step out of the bush to walk up to them but stops dead short as she sees what's happening. She watches in astonishment as her heroes de-transform into _Marinette_ and _Adrien_ , and everything she thought she knew about her best friend collapses all around her.

Ladybug—is Marinette. Marinette—is Ladybug. It doesn't make any sense, but at the same time, it makes more sense than everything that's been happening in Paris for the past year.

The history book. Ladybug's unusual familiarity with and attention to her, a middle school blogger. The fact that Marinette is never there when there's an akuma attack. The fact that Marinette always asks to go to the bathroom whenever something goes wrong in class. Alya had always chalked it up to bladder problems induced by nerves (and hey, she wasn't about to judge, akumas are terrifying), but it occurs to her now that it has nothing to do with anxiety, but the fact that Marinette goes there so that she can _transform_.

And now that she thinks about it, Adrien's exhibited the same behavior since day one, but she can't help but focus on Marinette.

She feels like a fool as she thinks about how she's spent the past school year fangirling about her best friend _to_ her best friend, who knew all along but never said anything. And she feels guilty, for pushing and pushing to learn as many details about Ladybug, when it was clear that Ladybug wanted to keep her identity hidden for the safety of Paris.

But would Paris have really been in that much more danger if Marinette had shared her secret with her best friend? Does Marinette truly lack that much trust in her?

Alya is consumed by a combination of shock and confusion and _anger_ as she watches Marinette laugh and mess up Adrien's hair as he wipes soot on her face and shirt to make it seem like they ran into the building to talk to Chat Noir and Ladybug, while a tiny black creature disappears into Adrien's bag and a red one dives into Marinette's purse.

She silently follows them as they walk up to the group of people outside and tell their story, and continues to hide behind a pillar until Marinette cries, "Wait, where's Alya? She was standing right here! She didn't go inside, did she? It's not safe in there!"

It's only then that Alya emerges, trying to look calm. "I'm here—I'm fine. Are you—are you okay?"

Marinette quickly observes Alya's ashen face and purses her lips. "I'm fine. But are you sure you're okay, Alya? You look like you've seen a ghost."

Alya watches her best friend exchange a meaningful glance with Adrien—and Alya wonders how long they've been doing that, how she could have ever missed it—and flinches as Marinette puts her hand on her shoulder.

"Come back with me to the bakery and eat something before you go home. I have some great stuff for you to put on the Ladyblog, since I actually talked to Ladybug herself!"

Alya slowly nods. "Okay."

* * *

Marinette gets two plates of cookies and a glass of milk for Alya and carries it to the table where she's sitting. Alya looks down at the food listlessly. She's not hungry—she wants answers.

Marinette notices her friend's strange mood, and just as she is about to say something, Alya speaks up.

"Actually, do you mind if we go up to your room? I want to talk to you about something."

"Of course. Is everything okay?"

"Yeah, yeah. I'd just rather talk to you upstairs," says Alya, getting up from the chair.

Marinette shrugs. "Okay, if that's what you want."

They slowly ascend the stairs and shut the door.

Alya turns to face her friend as they sit down on her bed.

Marinette smiles casually, as though she's got nothing to hide. Alya marvels at her skills as an actress. Mylene has nothing on her friend.

"So, what's up? Do you want to hear what Ladybug told me at school?"

Alya shakes her head and looks intently at Marinette's bag, where she is sure that the little red creature from earlier is hiding.

Marinette follows her gaze and turns back to look back at her, confused.

Alya gets up and walks over to pick up the bag. "I want to talk about this."

She makes a motion as though she is going to open it up, and Marinette turns white, immediately dropping her casual façade.

"You don't want me to open this bag, do you?"

Marinette opens and closes her mouth several times, gulping nervously.

"I—no. Please don't."

"Why not?"

"I—I can't tell you. But please don't open it," she breathes, the syllables barely escaping from her mouth.

"I know, Marinette," says Alya, her voice low but steady.

"Know what?"

"I know that you're Ladybug. And Adrien, he's Chat Noir, isn't he?"

Marinette feels her heart drop into her stomach as it clenches with dread. She's afraid that her best friend is never going to forgive her for this, even though she had to do it to protect her.

"Oh, Alya, I never wanted to hurt you—I—"

" _Don't_ tell me you were going to tell me, because I know you weren't ever planning to," says Alya, waggling her finger.

Marinette shakes her head. "I'm so sorry. It was for your safety—nobody else knows except Adrien."

"But I'm your best friend!"

"Do you understand the kind of danger knowing my identity puts you in? Even my parents have no idea!"

Alya places her hands on Marinette's shoulders. "If it means being able to help you when you're in danger? If it means helping you save Paris? Marinette, it's worth it!"

Marinette sighs. "It's much more dangerous than you think. Papillon, he has eyes and ears everywhere. He's probably listening to our conversation right now."

"I don't care." Alya looks around fiercely and shakes her fist at the ceiling. "Bite me, Moth Man! I'm not afraid of you, do you hear me? You've already akumatized me once, you can't do it again!"

As she stubbornly tightens her jaw and harrumphs, Marinette realizes that there's no point in arguing with her. It's too late to go back now.

Not that it matters—her intrepid best friend has already discovered all of her secrets at this point. There's nothing left to hide from her.

But then, she realizes that she suddenly feels like a huge weight has been lifted from her shoulders. Her heart feels lighter than it has in months, and she realizes how hard it's been to keep all of this information close to her chest.

She's been so busy trying to be the heroine Paris both needs and deserves that she hasn't stopped to think about how much of a burden it's been, hiding her double identity from everyone in her life—especially her best friend.

She's been dying to tell someone about all of her romantic dates with Adrien, but hasn't been able to because of her secret—but now that Alya knows, all those concerns are out the window.

She retrieves the purse and puts her hand on the clasp.

"Well then, I guess it's finally time for you to meet Tikki."

She pushes it open and the small red and black kwami floats out of Marinette's purse, looking cheerfully and waving at Alya.

" _Bonsoir,_ Alya! It's nice to finally meet you! I'm Tikki."

Alya stares curiously at the little creature. " _Salut_ , Tikki! You look just like a little ladybug."

Tikki giggles. "That's because I'm the one who gives Marinette the power to transform into Ladybug!"

"How?"

"Through her Miraculous—her earrings!"

Alya absorbs this information and turns to look at Marinette. "I knew your powers were connected to your earrings! No wonder you never wear the earrings I gave you for your birthday. You can't take them off, can you?"

Marinette shakes her head as she takes a cookie off her plate and hands it to a ravenous Tikki, who immediately starts eating it.

"No, I can't. It's too risky, since an akuma could show up at any point in time. That's one of the more annoying parts of all of this—I've got a box full of earrings that I'll never be able to wear again!"

"But I mean, you're the beloved superhero of Paris. Small price to pay, don't you think?"

Marinette laughs and paces around the room. "That's the least of it. The whole earring thing is nothing compared to juggling two identities. Especially when my best friend is determined to find out Ladybug's identity. Not to mention that I haven't gotten more than five hours of sleep in the past six months!"

She briefly gazes at the picture of Adrien that's still sitting on her desk before turning back to look at her best friend.

"But anyway, enough about that. Now that you know, I can finally tell you about how Adrien and I got together. And, um, explain the Chat Noir costume thing."

If she's honest with herself, Alya would rather keep talking about the responsibilities and challenges that come along with being Ladybug, but she knows that would be selfish—and she can ask about it later.

Not to mention, she is actually a little curious about how all of that went down, and how Marinette and Adrien went from barely being able to speak to each other to joking about doing 'physics experiments' in class in front of Nino.

So she grins and asks, "How long has that been, exactly?"

"It's actually only been a few days. And we discovered each other's secret identities a few days ago as well," says Marinette, eyes lighting up as she starts in on her favorite topic of conversation.

"Wait, you're telling me you didn't know already?"

"Alya, you said yourself that I couldn't keep my feelings about him secret if I tried. Do you really think that I would have been able to hide something like that from you if I'd known earlier?"

Alya raises an eyebrow. "Honestly, I wouldn't know. I feel like I barely know you anymore."

"Stooop!" whines Marinette. "That's not fair! You know why I had to do it."

"So then, tell me. How _did_ you and Adrien get together? How long has it been?"

Marinette tells her best friend all the details she's been keeping bottled up. It all comes out like a flood, and she gushes on and on about the reveal and how Adrien had figured it all out before her and how angry she had been when she realized that Chat and Adrien were the same person and how wonderful it had all been when they were finally on the same page. And she finally explains why Adrien was wearing his play costume, earning an exasperated sigh from her friend, who would still rather forget about the whole thing.

Alya listens appreciatively, oohing and aahing at all the right places while privately marveling at how Marinette had managed to keep it all together the way she had. She's clearly underestimated her friend all this time.

After Marinette finishes telling her about the whirlwind of the past week, she sighs in exhausted relief, when Alya suddenly remembers something from earlier.

"So, why couldn't you use Lucky Charm at the theater tonight?"

"Wait, how do you know that?"

"I…. _might_ have been eavesdropping while you and Chat Noir were talking."

"What? When?"

"Right before the two of you came back to the group. To be fair, I didn't mean to—I just wanted to ask the heroes of Paris to help me find my missing best friend and her boyfriend, who had suddenly disappeared into thin air. And then you did your little de-transforming trick and I found out why."

"Exactly how much of our conversation did you overhear?"

"A fair amount. Um, I might have pictures of you and Chat Noir kissing, too."

"What?! _Alya_! When did you become such a voyeur?"

"I just wanted to prove to you that Ladybug and Chat Noir were dating, since you were so dead-set against that idea! And now I know that you were lying."

"Well, I wasn't lying then. Adrien and I started dating after that conversation. And no, it wasn't after the kiss at the first rehearsal, like he told you it was."

"You can't tell me something like that and not share details with me! And you still haven't told me what the deal is with not being able to use Lucky Charm."

Marinette flushes bright red. "I, um, I used it to conjure up a ball gown. Because Adrien was wearing a suit, and I was in my red spandex, since I was visiting him as Ladybug."

"What does that have to do with anything?"

Marinette looks away, embarrassed, and Tikki pipes up. "I can explain that! Even though Ladybug is only supposed to use Lucky Charm in battle, she can use it in non-emergency situations as well. But if she does, she can't use it again for a whole day."

Alya turns her gaze to Marinette and shakes her head. "Are you serious? Girl, the things you do for that boy! I thought it would get better once you finally started dating, but it just seems like you got _worse_."

"I know, I know. But my powers will be back tomorrow, and I'm going to go to the theater tomorrow and restore it back to normal. But hey—do you want to come with me and film it? If you're still planning to run the Ladyblog, that is."

"That's the dumbest question anyone's ever asked me. Of course!"

* * *

 _ **Author's Note**_ : I wanted to wait until the end for the notes on this one, since I didn't want anyone to know about the reveal that would be in this chapter beforehand, and the theater fire was a way to set that up, plus teach Marinette a little lesson about wielding great power responsibly. Sorry for scaring you! :'D But as you know, I like positivity, and I was never going to ruin the overall light tone of this fic!

But yeah- so now Alya knows! I really wanted to try doing something like this because I feel like a lot of attention is given to the reveal between Marinette and Adrien, but what about their friends? When you've got a close friend like that, I feel like the reveal could have just as much, if not more, impact, and it wouldn't necessarily be an easy conversation. And because personally, I think that friendship is a very important part of the narrative and deserves just as much attention! So this was my take on the whole thing. Also, Alya is a joy to write, and I love giving her the last word :)

I'll be taking a short break from this fic for a week or two, since there are a couple writing contests I'm going to be entering, but I might post a couple chapters on my other new fic, The Night Patrol- so stay posted! Thanks for reading :D


	11. The Theater

**_Author's Note_ : **And we're back! I'm still working on my writing competition entries, but this story keeps poking at me, so I finally gave in and wrote the next chapter. We are now heading into Hell Week! What adventures await our heroes? Only time will tell :)

* * *

"So how are you going to run the Ladyblog?" asks Marinette. "Since you know who I am now."

"Well, I'll still be doing regular updates, but I'm going to put a little less emphasis on figuring out your identity."

"Thanks, girl," replies Marinette with a grateful smile.

Alya laughs. "Girl, of course! Are you kidding me? I've been dying to find out who Ladybug is for the past year and tell people, but now that I know it's you, I'll keep your secret as long as you need me to."

"You know that includes Nino, right? I know you guys are dating, but it's really important for us to keep our identities a secret."

"Adrien hasn't told him?"

"No."

"Well, yeah, I guess he would have told me if Adrien had said anything. That boy can't keep a secret to save his life. But don't worry girl, I won't tell him. You can trust me!"

"I know," says Marinette. "That's why we're best friends!"

Alya smiles and her phone buzzes. It's a text from her mother; she's waiting outside to take her home.

"Hey, so I've gotta go, but I'll see you tomorrow!"

Marinette waves goodbye to Alya, and as soon as she closes the hatch above her and descends down the stairs, she pulls out her phone to text Adrien. He has to know what happened tonight.

* * *

 **Marinette** : So Alya knows who we are now

 **Adrien** : what? how?

 **Marinette:** she saw us destransform at the school

 **Adrien** : oh man, was she mad?

 **Marinette** : kind of. But everything's okay now

 **Adrien** : are you okay? It's kind of been a crazy week for you

 **Marinette** : I know. I'm fine.

 **Adrien** : Wait, she's not going to tell Nino, is she?

 **Marinette** : I told her not to, and I trust her

 **Adrien** : okay good. I feel weird about hiding it from him now though, it doesn't feel right

 **Marinette** : I was thinking the same thing. But idk what we should do

 **Adrien** : …do you wanna transform and meet up to talk about it?

Marinette looks at Tikki, who is snoozing contentedly on top of the empty cookie plate, and shakes her head with a smile.

 **Marinette** : no, let's just talk when we see each other again tomorrow

 **Adrien** : Okay. bonne nuit, j'taime

 **Marinette** : J'taime aussi xxxxx

* * *

The next day after school, the cast of the play meets up in a spare classroom instead of the theater. With the exception of Marinette, Adrien, and Alya, everyone on the cast and crew is subdued and quiet, and Professeur Seydoux looks weary as she walks up to the front.

"Hello, everyone, I have an important announcement to share. As you all know, due to the fire last night, we will be unable to host our play in the school theater. Luckily, one of your classmates has offered to host our cast at an alternative venue. We will now be putting on our production at City Hall, thanks to the kind offer of Mademoiselle Chloe Bourgeois."

Chloe enters the room like a queen, head held high and ponytail swinging, and a subtle undercurrent of tension floods the room. There must be a catch to her unexpectedly generous offer, especially considering that she hasn't even been a part of the production up to this point. It's only a matter of time before the ball drops.

"Thank you for the kind introduction, Professeur Seydoux," she says, smiling beatifically at the cast and crew and waving like a poised beauty queen.

"I wasn't introducing you, Chloe. Everyone in here is in your class. They already know who you are," says Professeur Seydoux, exasperated.

Chloe waves dismissively at the teacher. "That's irrelevant. Anyway, my father will only allow the play to be held at City Hall under one condition."

Though everyone can see the rapidly pulsing vein on Professeur Seydoux's forehead, she manages to stay calm, and responds in a low voice, "And what is that, may I ask?"

"It will only be possible if I play Ladybug instead of Marinette," says Chloe, in a sickeningly sweet voice, dripping with poisonous treacle.

Professeur Seydoux shakes her head. "I'm sorry, Chloe, but that's impossible. We are starting technical rehearsals next week and there is no time to recast."

Chloe scowls. "Well then, I guess you won't have a play then, will you?!" she screeches, flouncing out of the room and slamming the door.

Professeur Seydoux sits down in despair. "Why must all of this be happening now?"

She turns to look at Marinette. "I'm so sorry, Marinette, but would you be willing to allow her to take your place? I know I'm asking a lot, but we have no other place to put on the play, even though I'm not sure how we would be able to figure out all the outdoor technicalities in such a short amount of time. But at least we would have a venue."

Marinette winks at Alya and Adrien before turning to Professeur Seydoux. "Don't worry, Professeur! For the sake of the show, Chloe can take my place. In fact, I'll even help her learn her lines. The show must go on!"

The professeur sighs with relief. If only all her students could be like this. "Thank you so much, Marinette. You really do embody many of the qualities of Ladybug. Alya and Nino were right to cast you in the role."

Alya laughs under her breath and says "You have no idea," in a low voice, while Adrien smiles on.

Nino looks at both of them, confused. "What are you guys smiling about? Marinette just gave up her part to Chloe and now Adrien has to kiss her! This is horrible!"

Alya and Adrien exchange worried glances. "Umm, it's nothing!" stammers Adrien. "We just thought that it was really awesome of Marinette to do that for the play," adds Alya.

"Hmm," says Nino, looking at them skeptically, but saying nothing.

* * *

After the Professeur discusses logistics for conducting rehearsal at City Hall, she dismisses the cast, and everyone scatters in different directions to go home. After everyone leaves, Marinette nods at Alya and Adrien and they make their way over to the theater, which is still covered with yellow tape and barriers.

They pick through the fallen beams and dust and survey the damage.

"Well, this is a fairly simple task!" says Marinette cheerfully. "It'll only take me a few seconds to fix this."

She turns to Alya, eyes sparkling. "Wanna watch me transform into Ladybug?"

Alya's eyes go wide. "Um, YES?"

"Alrighty then. Don't film me though!" says Marinette with a wink. "Tikki, _transforme moi!_ "

A few seconds later, Ladybug is standing there, and Alya's jaw is on the ground.

"That is. The coolest thing. I have ever seen."

Adrien grins. "Mine's pretty cool too. Wanna see it?"

Alya shakes her head and waggles her finger. "Mmm-mmm, nope. Don't show me right now. I'm still processing the amazingness that I just saw. I don't think I can handle two in one day."

Ladybug laughs as Adrien pouts. "Oh, _mon chaton_ , don't feel bad! Alya still wants to see it, just on another day when she can appreciate your transformation in all its glory."

"I guess that's fair," says Adrien sullenly.

Alya raises an eyebrow with concern while Ladybug waves her hand dismissively.

"Don't mind him, he's just being dramatic. This is a quick fix, anyway. Watch!"

She pulls out Lucky Charm and fixes the entire theater as Adrien and Alya watch with appreciation, and when it's spotless, she walks up to Alya and taps her notebook.

"Hey, can I borrow a piece of paper?"

"Of course. What do you need it for?"

"I'm going to write a note to the Professeur saying that the only girl I want playing the role of Ladybug in this production is Marinette Dupain-Cheng."

Alya laughs. "Nice move."

* * *

The next day, the three of them exchange pleased glances when the school announcements wax poetic about how Ladybug secretly visited Francoise-Dupont yesterday and restored the theater back to its former glory.

And it's even sweeter when Professeur Seydoux announces at rehearsal that due to the restoration of the theater, the original cast will stay intact, and they are able to witness Chloe turning as red as a fire hydrant as she seethes with fury.

* * *

As they settle back into the rhythm of rehearsal, it suddenly occurs to Alya as she's setting up the lighting again that they have a huge, huge problem. And she can't believe that it hasn't occurred to any of them before.

She runs over to Marinette and Adrien, who are in the middle of practicing one of their action scenes, and drags them into a corner backstage, where nobody can hear them.

"We have a big problem."

Marinette and Adrien exchange glances. "What is it?"

"In case you've forgotten, both Ladybug and Chat Noir are invited to this play, since it's honoring the first anniversary of their appearance in Paris. But both of you are in this production. How exactly are you going to be in the play and in the audience at the same time?"

Nino comes out of the shadows. "I can help with that."


	12. The Secret Keeper

**_Author's Note_ : **We are getting close to the end! Only three chapters and a bonus chapter left :) Sorry this one's so short! It took me a fair amount of time to get the inspiration to write- been really busy with a bunch of stuff and trying to ignore other plot bunnies!

ETA: Noticing some confusion on my use of the term demigod! So despite what Rick Riordan might have written in his books, demigods aren't strictly the offspring of one mortal parent and one divine parent. The term can also refer to a figure who has attained divine status after death, **a minor diety _,_** _or_ a mortal who is the offspring of a god and a human. :)

* * *

FADE IN:

INT. FRANCOISE-DUPONT THEATER - BACKSTAGE

Alya (shocked): Nino!

Marinette (angry): Alya!

Adrien (confused): Marinette?

Nino (cheerful): Adrien!

* * *

"So you're Chat Noir, huh?" says Nino. "That's awesome, dude!"

"Um, uh, no, I don't know what you're talking about," Adrien stammers as he warily looks back and forth between a fuming Marinette and a visibly nervous Alya.

"Alya! Did you tell him?! You promised!" screeches Marinette.

"It wasn't me, I swear!" says Alya, shaking her head vigorously. "I didn't say anything!"

Nino laughs and cheerfully waves his arms about, oblivious to the tension in the air. "Nobody told me anything! I figured it out myself! But that was a cool entrance, right? I was waiting for the right moment!"

" _Nino_!" says Alya in a warning tone, and Nino finally notices the stricken expressions on the faces of his friends.

"I'm sorry guys, did I do something wrong? I mean, you do need help with the two places at once thing for opening night, don't you? I can help with that!"

Alya watches with concern and shakes her head as Marinette breathes heavily and her face contorts into a shape that she has only ever seen in a Looney Tunes cartoon.

She places a calming hand on her friend's shoulder and turns to her boyfriend.

"Before you do any of that, you have to tell us how you found out about Marinette and Adrien being Ladybug and Chat Noir."

"Well, so I was on this page on TV Tropes the other day—"

"What does that have to do with anything?!" interrupts Alya. "Don't change the subject!"

"Well after you were talking to me about finding out who Ladybug was a couple weeks ago, it made me feel like reading some superhero comics with really cool identity reveals. And then I went on The Unmasking page and read some of the entries, and I started thinking about a lot of the stuff that's been going on with you guys."

Marinette turns to Alya, confused. She has no idea what Nino is going on about. Adrien stays silent (he knows exactly what Nino is talking about).

Nino's eyes glitter with excitement as he starts listing off everything he's noticed.

"I started thinking about how you guys haven't been turned into akumas, and how you always disappear whenever there's an attack at the same time, and then you've both kind of been sleepy lately. And then yesterday when Chloe tried to take over Marinette's role—I thought it was really weird how the two of you were acting. And I really thought it was weird that Marinette didn't say anything!"

He turns to her, eyes wide. "I mean, you always stand up to Chloe whenever she tries to get in our space. So it was confusing, you know?"

"But Nino…none of that actually proves anything," says Adrien, slow and cautious. "I mean, do you think anyone else knows? Anyone could have noticed what you saw."

Nino shakes his head as he looks back at Adrien. "Well, it wasn't just that…I kind of followed the three of you to the theater yesterday when I saw you were going there."

"What?!" yells Alya. "Nino, I thought you said you were going home!"

"I was, I was! But I left my headphones in my locker, and then when I came back to get them I saw the three of you heading toward the theater. I was about to call after you guys, but you guys looked like you didn't want to be bothered. And, well…I was kind of suspicious. So I tried to be sneaky. And then I saw Marinette transform and it BLEW MY MIND. I still can't believe it. I mean, my best friend and his girlfriend are both superheroes. This is the coolest thing that's ever happened to me!"

"It's not that exciting," drawls Plagg from Adrien's bag. "Not as much as a perfect round of camembert, anyway."

"Who's that?" says Nino, surprised.

"That's Plagg," Marinette and Adrien respond in sync, before looking at each other and laughing. She motions at him to continue, and Adrien grins at his friend.

"He's my kwami—he helps me transform into Chat Noir. If I give him enough cheese, that is."

Nino's eyes boggle as the inky black creature floats out of Adrien's bag and up to his face, peering at him with beady laser green eyes.

"Do you have any camembert on you? Adrien says he won't give me any until we get home, and I'm really getting hungry. You look like someone who carries food with you."

Nino laughs. "Yeah, I have popcorn! Do you like popcorn?"

Adrien grins. "If camembert is the love of Plagg's life, popcorn is his best friend."

"Great!"

Nino pulls a small bag of popcorn out of his duffel bag and Plagg hungrily dives in, surfacing only to announce "I like this one," to Adrien before returning to his feast.

Nino smiles before turning back to his friends, suddenly even more excited than before.

"Oh wait, man—so that makes me a secret keeper, right? And I'm gonna help you with the tech for the show! Oh duuuuude so does that make me Alfred? And Alya, that makes you Lois Lane! Wait, so how long have you known then? It can't be long, right? Or you wouldn't have been running the Ladyblog and tried to figure out who Ladybug is—UNLESS—that's all your way of keeping suspicion off Marinette and Adrien! Oh damn, you're even cooler than I thought—that's so hot—"

"Nino, buddy, calm down!" says Adrien, placing his arms on his friend's shoulders as Alya sighs with fond exasperation.

Marinette nods. "It's really important for you to keep this a secret, okay? You can't tell anyone!"

"You can trust me! I'm great at keeping secrets."

Alya and Adrien exchange glances and smother their laughter.

"I swear, I am! You can trust me, I promise."

Tikki floats out of Marinette's bag and up to Nino's face, peering closely into his startled eyes.

"I like this one too!" she announces, turning back to Marinette and nodding with satisfaction. "I believe him. He's trustworthy."

"Is this—what's her name—your name…?" stammers Nino.

"I'm Tikki!" replies the little kwami, smiling brightly. "I help Marinette transform into Ladybug!"

"Wow Tikki, it's—it's nice to meet you. Do you, ah, like popcorn too?"

Nino looks over to Plagg and sees that he has already eaten all of it and is taking a cat nap in the empty bag, his little stomach puffed out as it slowly rises and falls.

"Sorry about that…I think I have some more in my bag if you really want some," he responds, sheepish.

Tikki giggles. "No, it's fine! I already ate one of Marinette's cookies. But thank you!"

Nino shrugs. "Okay!"

He turns back to his friends as Tikki floats down and settles back into Marinette's purse.

"Wait, so I saw Marinette transform into Ladybug, but I didn't see you transform into Chat Noir. Can you show me? That would be so cool!"

Marinette slides her eyes towards Adrien, whose entire being has lit up with excitement. She smiles fondly at her boyfriend as he nods ecstatically and pokes at his kwami to wake up.

"Plagg, get up!"

Plagg opens one eye. "Can't a 5000 year old demigod take a five minute cat-nap without being bothered?"

"Plagg, I'll give you two rounds of camembert if you listen to whatever Adrien says," says Marinette, laughing.

Plagg narrows his eyes at her before nodding. "You picked a good Ladybug, Tikki," he says. "She knows how to strike a good bargain."

Adrien rolls his eyes. "Now that you've got your cheese, can you please help me transform?"

"What's the hurry?"

"NOW."

Plagg sighs and finally acquiesces as Adrien yells _"Transforme moi!"_

Nino and Alya are dazzled by the spectacle, clapping wildly. Encouraged by their applause, Chat Noir shows off a few tricks with his baton, grinning brightly. After the show, Marinette jumps up with a loud cheer and kisses him on the cheek, causing Chat to blush a sweet shade of bright red that elicits a series of wolf whistles from both Nino and Alya that get even Marinette blushing.

* * *

After Chat's show, the four friends realize that they've been away from rehearsal for over a half hour, so they rush back to the others, who thankfully, have been too busy to even notice. After it ends, they walk out of the theater together, when Marinette realizes that they've forgotten something.

"Wait, so Nino, you never actually told us how you were going to help Adrien and me be in two places at the same time. How is that even going to be possible?"

"Oh, it's simple! Holograms."

"Where on earth are you going to get holograms from?"

"I've got connections."

Marinette turns with raised eyebrows to Alya, who shrugs. "Nino has connections with some weird people. DJs have a lot of crazy hobbies."

Nino laughs at the skeptical expression on Marinette's face. "Don't worry, trust me! This guy is solid. Nobody's even going to realize that they're sitting next to a hologram on opening night."

Marinette sighs and stops to look at a large bus shelter poster advertising the play.

"I hope you're right!"


	13. The Flight

_**Author's Note:**_ Friendship! Fluff! Petty Adrien! All my favorite things, plus some cute romance. Hope you enjoy! The next chapter is going to take place during opening night, and you'll finally get to see the play in all its glory :D

* * *

As Ladybug and Chat Noir, Marinette and Adrien have both seen most of Paris over the past year, including places they never would have gone if not for their superhero alter egos.

Even so, neither has been in this part of the city that Nino has brought them to, where his "friend" who has access to this mysterious hologram technology lives.

It's taken them an hour and a half to get here, winding through streets and alleyways unfamiliar to even them. But they have to—they just finished dress rehearsal, and tomorrow is opening night, and they really need those holograms, or they're gonna have to come up with a last minute explanation as to why neither of Paris's favorite superheroes can make it to the special production being held in their honor.

"Nino, I'm not sure this is a good idea," says Alya, skeptical. "Does your friend even know that we're coming?"

"Of course! I texted Theo an hour ago."

" _Theo?_ As in the sculptor who made the Ladybug and Chat Noir statues?" says Adrien, confused. "What does he know about holograms?"

Nino shrugs. "It's one of his day jobs, I guess. He told me he has access to a database that stores a bunch of them. Anyway, he told me that his company made one for the pop star XY once, so it shouldn't be a problem for him to find or make one for Ladybug and Chat Noir."

"I'll bet he already has one made for Ladybug," mutters Adrien under his breath.

Marinette smirks. "What was that, _chaton_? Is someone turning into a green-eyed monster?"

Adrien blushes bright red. "Of course not! I—I just don't need Copycat running around town and ruining my reputation again."

"I'm _sure_ that's why you don't want to see him," says Marinette, grinning smugly.

Alya and Nino exchange questioning glances and shrug. Neither of them has any idea what their crazy best friends are talking about.

Alya turns to Marinette. "Um, girl? Mind explaining? You're kind of speaking Greek here."

Marinette laughs and shakes her head. "Let's just say that Adrien and Theo go way back. Or should I say, _Chat Noir_ and Theo. "

"Okaay…." says Nino, nonplussed.

He leads them down a quiet street and stops in front of a dingy apartment building and pulls out his phone.

"This is it! This is where Theo lives. I'm gonna text him and tell him that we're here."

"Wow, I never would have guessed that Theo lives somewhere like here," says Marinette. "His studio is so much nicer than this place."

"Well, it's hard being a working artist," Alya says. "I've got a cousin who lives in an apartment even smaller than this."

Adrien stands silently and takes in the scene, when he realizes something.

"Wait!" he says. "Theo doesn't know that Marinette and I are Ladybug and Chat Noir. And there's no good way we're going to be able to explain why we need holograms without giving our secret away."

Marinette's eyes widen. "You're right! We should both transform before we go up."

She turns to Alya, who's making muffled squeals of delight. "You're never going to get over this, are you?" she says, laughing.

"I don't think you can ever fully appreciate how cool it is to find out that your best friend is Ladybug," responds Alya with a grin as Nino nods vigorously.

" _Desolé,_ but we can't transform in front of you this time!" says Adrien. "It's too risky. Come on, Marinette."

He wraps an arm around Marinette's waist and quickly tugs her behind the building.

Alya purses her lips in disappointment. "Are you sure they're not just going back there to get in a really quick make-out session?"

Nino opens his mouth to say something, but Alya places a finger on his lips to stop him.

"That was a rhetorical question."

* * *

Ladybug and Chat Noir arrive around the corner just as Theo comes down the stairs. He smiles and waves at Nino before his gaze falls upon the two superheroes. His eyes light up as soon as he sees Ladybug.

"Bonsoir, Ladybug! What a pleasant surprise! What are you doing here?"

Ladybug winks at Chat Noir before walking up to Theo. "Salut, Theo! Long time no see. I was actually wondering if you could do me a little favor, as the best sculptor in Paris?"

Theo blushes and laughs nervously. "Yes, of course, anything—! What kind of sculpture do you need me to make?"

"It's not a sculpture," interjects Chat Noir, frowning. "We need holograms of Ladybug and me."

Theo turns to look at him, surprised. "Holograms of the two of you? But why?"

Ladybug smiles and places a hand on his shoulder as she leans in.

"Well you see, Theo, Chat Noir and I have been invited to a very special production at the Collège Françoise Dupont the day after tomorrow, but it coincides with another event we must attend as well. We don't want to disappoint anyone, so if you could make holograms of us so that we can be in two places at once, well—I would be very grateful!"

Alya watches with surprise, her eyebrows stretched toward the sky. She's never seen Marinette like this before. The girl's got game, and she has to say that she is quite impressed. Who knew Marinette had it in her?

Theo nods and looks at her with admiration. "Of course, Ladybug! That's so thoughtful of you."

"It was actually Nino's idea," Chat Noir quickly cuts in.

Theo turns to the DJ, who is staring at his friend, baffled by his unusually aggressive behavior (well, for him—compared to other people, he still sounds perfectly polite. But Nino knows better).

"That's great, Nino! You're a good friend. So I already have a Ladybug hologram—"

"Called it," says Chat Noir in a low voice as he narrows his eyes and glares at Ladybug, who sighs.

Theo continues to talk as he walks over to his computer, oblivious of the tension in the air.

"My company needed a hologram of her at a summit for world leaders. Another company was contracted to make the Chat Noir hologram, but they sent me the file and I might still have it lying around here somewhere—ah, yes, here it is! I'll need to contact them to get some of the tech to set it up, but I think we should be fine otherwise."

Alya steps in. "So, is there anything they need to do?"

Theo picks up two recording devices and hands them to Ladybug and Chat Noir.

"Well, I'm going to need the two of you to record some stock responses, in case people try talking to you and expect you to say something. It could be kind of awkward if they try and say something and your holograms are just standing there in silence."

"That makes sense," says Ladybug, nodding as she takes the device.

"So, how did you get into this business, anyway?" says Chat Noir. "Aren't you a sculptor?"

Theo laughs. "Well, I need to do something to pay the bills. And my girlfriend Vivienne got me this gig. She's a grad student at The Sorbonne."

"Oh!" says Chat Noir, immediately relaxing. "Well, that's just _purrfect_. Isn't that lovely, my lady? Theo's girlfriend got him this job."

Ladybug rolls her eyes. "Yes, very nice indeed."

They spend the next hour recording stock responses and random discussion topics, as many things as they can think of that members of an audience could possibly come up with, until they realize that it's starting to get late, and that they should all probably get home.

They say goodbye to Theo (Chat Noir more gleefully than the others), and walk out of the apartment building. As they get outside, Alya looks at the time on her phone in dismay.

"It's going to take such a long time to get home! I was supposed to babysit my younger sisters tonight, _Maman_ is going to be really mad at me."

Nino frowns. "I'm sorry, Alya, I didn't know it would take this long! Would it help if I called and explain to her that we were doing something for the play? I mean, it wouldn't be the first time."

Ladybug and Chat Noir exchange smiles and Ladybug places a hand on her best friend's shoulder.

"I think you're forgetting that you're both best friends with the two superheroes of Paris! We can get you home in no time. You just need to hold on tight!"

Alya squeals with delight. "Ahh! Really? That would be perfect!"

Ladybug nods. "Of course! I mean, we're already transformed, so it'll be much faster for all of us!"

Chat turns to Nino and taps his headphones. "Hey bud, you should probably put those into your bag, you don't want them to fall off."

Nino turns pale. "Ahhh dude, I'm really not sure about this, I'm actually really afraid of heights! Do either of you have teleportation powers, by any chance?"

"Nino, you know they don't," says Alya, shaking her head. "You can do this! Come on, how many chances will you ever get to experience something like this again?"

"Hopefully never," quips Nino, blanching as his knees start shaking.

Chat smiles gently and places his hands on his friend's shoulders. "Hey, I promise everything's gonna be fine. This is the fastest way both of you can get home. But if you're really uncomfortable, I can call the Gorilla and he can come pick us up."

"Won't that get you in trouble?"

"Yeah, it will, but I don't want to make you do something you don't want to do," says Chat, shrugging.

Nino shakes his head. "No way, man. I don't want to get you in trouble. I can handle this."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah man. If you're willing to take the fall just for me, I can get over my fear of heights for one night."

"That's the spirit, Nino!" cheers Alya, who's already hanging onto Ladybug and ready to go.

Nino climbs onto Chat's back and gulps before closing his eyes and holding on tight.

Ladybug and Chat Noir look at each other and nod before launching up into the night sky, and though Nino does his best not to be scared, he accidentally opens his eyes for a moment halfway through the journey and screams just a little bit. (The others pretend not to hear, just for his benefit)

Years from now, when Alya tells her grandkids about her adventures as Ladybug's best friend, she always comes back to this night. Though the children don't understand at the time why it's one of her most cherished memories, it's always something she looks back on with the utmost fondness.

Four crazy teenagers, flying over the skies of Paris, laughing and screaming and carefree, reveling in the moment.

* * *

After Chat Noir and Ladybug drop Alya and Nino home, it's past 9, and nearly time for their weekly night patrol. Tonight, they're patrolling Marinette's neighborhood, so they drop onto her balcony to take a short break before they get started.

Chat leans on the railing and takes in the Parisian nightscape.

"You've got a great view from here."

Ladybug smiles. "I know."

"Why don't we hang out here more often?"

"We can, if you want." She walks up behind him and wraps him in a hug from behind, pressing her cheek into his back.

Chat murmurs with contentment. "I like that idea."

He turns around and takes her hands in his. "Sometimes none of this feels real, you know? Being a superhero, saving Paris, all of it. I can't believe that any of this is happening. But at least it's happening with you."

Ladybug giggles. "That's a line from the play!"

"Alya got it right though. I mean it."

"And I mean this one: You're mine. And I'm yours."

She leans up and presses her lips against his, light as a butterfly.

"What do you say we practice that finale scene one last time, so we have it down for Opening Night tomorrow?"

Chat blushes and smiles in the darkness as he wraps his arms around her and pulls her closer.

"I think that's a great idea."


	14. The Big Night

_**Author's Note:**_ And here it is, the big finale chapter! Chapter 15 will be an epilogue of sorts and Chapter 16 will be an AU version of Chapter 8, but for the most part, the buck stops here, my friends! Thanks so much for all the comments and love- it's been a real pleasure writing this story for all of you and I hope you stick around for my future stories!

I've got another one currently in progress that I'd love for you to check out ( **The Night Patrol** ) and the first chapter of a ballet AU where Marinette and Adrien are dancers at the Paris Opera Ballet that will be coming out next week ( **Etoiles** ). Hope to see you there! :)

* * *

Marinette and Adrien hold hands as they peek out through the curtains at the crowd milling about outside. It's half an hour to showtime, and the audience is slowly swelling. They're filled with both excitement and nervousness—so much has happened since they were cast in these roles that it's hard to believe that it's all coming down to tonight.

Alya and Nino have both texted that Theo has successfully set up the hologram display, and from backstage, they can see that the sculptor has more than held up his end of the bargain. Collectively, the five of them have decided that the best way to minimize any sort of mix ups is to create a private booth for Ladybug and Chat Noir, and to allow minimal interaction with the public—the idea is that it's a special performance just for the two of them and that they have to leave early on a night patrol, so they don't have time to talk to anyone beyond basic pleasantries. And so far, it's going good.

So far, at least.

But they don't have time to think about anything else, as Mylene runs up to them and tells them it's time to get set up for the first scene.

And before they know it, the lights have dimmed, the curtains have parted, and it's time to begin. The crowd roars with applause as Ladybug and Chat Noir make their dramatic entrances, and watch, enraptured, as they relive the first battle. Props go out to Max and Nino, who have done a spectacular job with the special effects—they're almost as realistic as the real thing, and Marinette's heart almost stops for a moment as she remembers the moment where she gathered courage and and found the heart to be the heroine that Paris needs.

Alya's taken her speech from that day and added some dramatic license to it, but the heart of it is the same, and Marinette stands tall and proud above the audience as she delivers her monologue. Adrien remembers the moment too, and for a moment, he forgets he's on stage, lost in the memory of that day.

The play continues, running through a quick montage of the akumas that Ladybug and Chat Noir faced in their first few months as heroes. They come in all shapes and sizes, and Ivan, Kim, and Juleka slip into the different costumes like quicksilver, aided by Mylene and Rose.

Though it's mostly fictional (at the time Alya wrote the script, there was no way she could have possibly known that Ladybug and Chat Noir were no more than friends until very, very recently), the audience sighs with happiness as they watch the friendship and partnership between Ladybug and Chat Noir grow closer and closer.

Marinette can see Adrien eating up the praise from the audience, and he gets hammier and hammier to the point where he's acting even more over the top than he does when he's actually transformed as Chat Noir, and it takes all of Marinette's effort not to break character and burst into laughter, particularly after a scene where Chat is dancing around the stage with glee after finding out that Ladybug reciprocates his feelings for her.

* * *

Enraptured by the drama taking place on stage, nobody notices what's going on outside the theater when Chloe shows up outside the entrance to the theater in the middle of Act III.

Sabrina, who is manning the ticket booth and has just finished counting stubs, turns pale as her best friend approaches her with a determined pout and a steely glint in her eyes.

"Um, Chloe, is something wrong? I thought you said you would be at the Jagged Stone concert tonight!"

"Shut up, Sabrina. I told you I would come here tonight. Have you done what I told you to do?"

"Chloe, I'm in charge of tickets! I couldn't just tell people to go home because the show was canceled. And it's already the final act—there's nothing I can do!"

"UGH, Sabrina, you're useless!"

Chloe taps her foot impatiently and huffs around the ticket booth while Sabrina frowns and looks down sadly, before she remembers a special piece of information that she knows will perk her friend up.

"Wait, Chloe!"

"What is it?" asks Chloe, petulantly.

"You know that Ladybug and Chat Noir are here in the audience tonight, right?"

Chloe turns on her heel and grabs Sabrina by the shoulders. "WHAT DID YOU SAY?"

"Yes, I think I saw them entering! They're sitting in a private booth with someone named Theo. I think he's a friend of theirs."

"What? That's absurd! I'M the most prestigious fan of Ladybug. If anyone should get to sit next to her in an exclusive booth, it's me!"

"But Chloe, you didn't even want to come tonight!"

Chloe sniffs. "That doesn't matter. Now that I know that Ladybug is here, I'm going to go sit next to her."

She brightens up. "Oh! And I'm going to get a selfie with her, too!"

"That's the spirit, Chloe!" cheers Sabrina, forgetting that she isn't supposed to let Chloe inside without a ticket.

Chloe quietly sneaks into the theater and quickly surveys the audience before spotting the private booth where Ladybug and Chat Noir are sitting, next to the random stranger she assumes is Theo.

For his part, Theo has been keeping the audience members at bay, making a convincing argument that Ladybug and Chat Noir want their privacy, and for the most part, everyone understands—though there are some understandably disappointed people who want to meet their heroes.

But he is not prepared for the sheer force of will that is Chloe Bourgeois.

She approaches Theo and waves her hand with the most dismissive look that he's ever seen on anyone's face.

"Excuse you, but you need to move so I can sit next to Ladybug. She's _my_ personal hero. I don't know who you think you are, but only the most important people in Paris deserve to sit by someone so special."

"I'm sorry, mademoiselle, but that's not possible!" starts Theo, before Chloe comes up to him and gets right in his face.

"I don't know if you know who I am, but I can destroy you," she whispers viciously, before shoving him out of the way and stepping right in front of Ladybug and Chat Noir.

And that's when Chloe realizes that her heroine and her lame partner are not really there. That, in fact, what everyone thinks are Ladybug and Chat Noir are actually holograms, and it all becomes crystal clear as to why Theo is there.

At first she's angry.

And then she's delighted.

Because the fact that neither Ladybug nor Chat Noir actually bothered to come tonight means that neither of them thought that this play was important enough to show up in person.

Theo stares at Chloe nervously as she smiles with savage glee, realizing that she can rub this in Professeur Seydoux's face. It will be sweet, sweet revenge for not being allowed to take over the role of Ladybug from Marinette.

She quickly snaps several pictures of the holograms and the tech and of Theo's horrified face for good measure before sitting down and deciding which ones are the best, before turning her attention back to the stage.

As she watches Marinette and Adrien holding hands and dancing around on stage in those cheap costumes, laughing in the simulated rain as the audience oohs and ahhs, Chloe decides that she's not even going to wait until the play is over to tell Professeur Seydoux. She's going to do it as soon as this scene ends.

* * *

As the lights dim and the scene ends, Chloe slides down the stairs and out of the theater, quickly making her way down the quiet school hallways to the backstage entrance. She waits until people stop talking and the next scene gets underway to quietly open the doors and scan the area before she finds the person she's looking for: Professeur Seydoux, standing alone by the edge of the curtain, watching Marinette and Adrien on stage having a conversation and mouthing along with the words.

She walks up to her and taps her shoulder, and Professeur Seydoux looks back in surprise.

"Chloe? What are you doing backstage? You of all people should know that only people in the production are allowed in here during the performance. You need to return to the audience."

"Professeur, I have something to show you."

"Chloe, can't it wait?"

"I'm afraid not. You see, Ladybug and Chat Noir lied to you. Neither of them came here tonight."

Professeur Seydoux sighs. "Chloe, I know you're upset about not getting the role of Ladybug, but that doesn't mean you need to start making up lies. I've seen Ladybug and Chat Noir sitting in the audience with my own two eyes."

Chloe smirks. "I'm not making up lies. Look at these pictures. They're not here. They hired someone to make holograms of themselves. Isn't that awful? You must feel terrible right now."

The professeur flips through the photos on Chloe's phone and frowns in confusion.

"What is this?"

"I told you. It's holograms. Clearly they didn't think that this special production was worth their precious time, or they would have come in person. Personally, I'm sure they would have come if _I_ had been in the role."

Normally, Professeur Seydoux would not entertain this kind of nonsense from Chloe. She's used to putting up with it all the time, but she's been feeling tense all day from the pressure of putting together the perfect production.

And something about the combination of that infuriating smirk on the Bourgeois girl's face—and the fact that Ladybug and Chat Noir actually thought it would be better to resort to a trick like _holograms_ instead of sending simple regrets and being honest about their inability to come—well, it finally makes her snap.

Hawk Moth can feel the professeur's frustration and disappointment bubbling over. He's been tracking her for a while now—and now is finally the time to strike. Quickly, he sends an akuma her way, and as soon as it touches Chloe's phone, he speaks.

"La Réalisatrice! Ladybug and Chat Noir have wronged you by ignoring the fruits of your labor. If you will bring their Miraculouses to me, I can help you exact your revenge on them."

"Yes, Hawk Moth," says Professeur Seydoux as she allows the black magic to envelop her body, giving into her anger and resentment. She transforms into a metallic blue and black creature that looks almost robotic, with pitch black eyes. A large megaphone appears in her left hand, where she's holding the phone, and latches onto it like glue.

Chloe notices this with displeasure and shrieks. "HEY, THAT'S MY PHONE!"

La Réalisatrice turns to her with a scowl and points it at at her, turning her into a hologram. Chloe shakes her hand and tries to run towards her, but as no more than a beam of light, there's not much she can do than stand there and watch, useless, as the villain rushes toward the stage.

* * *

While the drama unfurls backstage, the big finale scene has begun.

A string of fairy lights and romantic lighting give off the impression of Paris at midnight, and Ladybug and Chat Noir are sitting across from each other at a tiny café table, knees touching.

Ladybug gets up to leave. "Chat Noir, I have to go home now—it's getting late. I'll…see you tomorrow?"

"Ladybug, wait! There's something I need to tell you!" says Adrien.

Marinette's whisper echoes across the theater. "What is it, Chat Noir?"

"I knew when I became Chat Noir that I would have a partner. But I never could have imagined she'd be as amazing as you."

"I never expected it either. But that's why we're here together."

He pulls Marinette close, his hands around her waist, and she reaches up and gently cups his face, her heart beating fast.

By now, they've kissed so many times that it's a little tough to act like it's their first kiss, especially when hundreds of people are watching. But in the darkness of the theater and the spotlight shining down on them, it suddenly doesn't seem as hard to remember that feeling of excitement and nervousness when they kissed for the first time at rehearsal.

"You're mine," whispers Marinette. "And I'm yours."

As they lean closer together, the entire audience is so quiet one would even be able to hear a pin drop, and everyone is collectively holding their breath, waiting for their lips to touch.

In the sound booth, both Alya and Nino are leaning back in their chairs and smiling at what has been a job well done, when they both spot La Réalisatrice coming in from stage left at the exact same time, and their jaws drop open.

Nino grabs the controls to the intercom and turns it on while Alya grabs the microphone.

"ADRIEN! MARINETTE! GET OUT OF THERE! THERE'S AN AKUMA COMING!"

Adrien and Marinette immediately break their embrace and run out on stage right and behind the curtains as the audience starts panicking, just as La Réalisatrice arrives on the scene. They nod at each other and quickly transform.

"LADYBUG! CHAT NOIR! I DEMAND YOU SHOW YOURSELVES! HOW DARE YOU NOT COME TO THIS PRODUCTION?" she booms through the megaphone. "HOW DARE YOU SEND HOLOGRAMS INSTEAD? UNTIL YOU SHOW YOURSELVES AND APOLOGIZE, I WILL TURN EVERY PERSON IN THIS ENTIRE CITY INTO A HOLOGRAM. THAT IS THE PROMISE OF LA RÉALISATRICE."

"Uh oh," whispers Ladybug. "That's Professeur Seydoux. How did she find out about the holograms?"

Chat rolls his eyes. "I don't know about that, but La Réalisatrice"? Really? The Director? We know she's the play director. Hawk Moth couldn't come up with something more creative this time? Why not Shakespeare or Godot? Not even Prospero? You know, 'all the world's a stage?"

Ladybug sighs. "Chat Noir, it doesn't matter what her name is, we have to stop her before she turns the entire audience into holograms!"

"You're right, my lady," says Chat Noir. "What are you thinking?"

"Well, she's looking for us, right? If we announce we're here, she'll stop. At least for a moment. At any rate, we need to divert her attention until I can figure out where her akuma is."

"I like the way you think, my lady," says Chat Noir with a wink. "Looks like it's time for an encore of my dramatic entrance!"

He pulls out his baton and backflips onto the stage, singing a nonsense tune that surely sounds like music in another universe, but is nothing but dissonant noise in this one.

La Réalisatrice stops her hologram rampage of the first two rows and cringes at the sound. "What is that horrible noise?!" she screeches. "It sounds like a cat in heat!"

"Ah madame, you've got good ears!" quips Chat Noir. "I am indeed a cat in heat. A cat in the heat of battle!" He twirls his baton around and wiggles his ears.

La Réalisatrice turns around, recognizing the sound of his voice.

"Ah, Chat Noir. I see you have finally made an appearance. So kind of you to finally come, when the show is practically over already. Where is your partner?"

"She's occupied at the moment, but I can promise that I am a very interesting cat even when I'm all by myself!" responds Chat Noir, as Ladybug quietly slips behind the curtains and walks towards her.

Chat Noir continues to tease her as Ladybug observes all the details of La Réalisatrice's costume, and focuses in on her megaphone, which she is clutching in one hand.

She pulls out her yo-yo and activates the communication device. " _Chaton_ , do you read me? I think the akuma is inside her megaphone. Can you distract her somehow so I can get ahold of it?"

Chat Noir nods. "You know I'm great at distractions." He looks up at the villain and pole vaults off the stage.

"Hey! Think you can turn me into a hologram, madame? You'll have to catch me first!"

As La Réalisatrice shrieks and lifts her arm to aim her megaphone right at him, Ladybug whips her yo-yo at it and beats it to the ground.

"Chat Noir, now!" she shouts, as La Réalisatrice turns around in shock to see Ladybug.

He drops back onto the stage and activates Cataclysm, collapsing it into dust and knocking her into the rubble.

Ladybug grabs the megaphone and slings her yo-yo towards the theater rafters, followed by Chat Noir, who launches his baton—but as she swings up, Chat Noir's baton slips against the rubble, and he is forced to jump and grab onto her.

Chat Noir and Ladybug dangle above the audience, swinging from the rafters, his legs wrapped around her waist, with one hand gently grasping her shoulder.

Ladybug quickly examines the megaphone. "Where could the akuma be hidden in this? Professeur Seydoux didn't have anything like this before."

Chat looks at the megaphone and immediately spots Chloe's phone attached to the side, which he recognizes it by sight.

"Chloe…." he groans. "Of course it was her."

"What?"

"Chloe's phone is attached to the megaphone. I'm also 100% sure that the akuma is in here."

Ladybug frowns. "It's stuck tight to the side. I can't pull it out by myself. I'm going to need Lucky Charm for this."

She activates the charm and a pair of pliers appears, which she can only assume are to wrench the phone from the megaphone, which she does quickly before breaking open the phone and capturing the akuma.

"Gotcha!" she announces cheerfully, as Chat Noir watches her with admiration. This is the closest he's ever been to her while she's doing this, and he's not sure he's ever going to get over the way her eyes sparkle in the moment.

"Miraculous Ladybug!" shouts Ladybug, and the purifying beams of light scatter throughout the theater, returning all of the audience members who have been turned into holograms back to normal as La Réalisatrice reverts back into a very confused Professeur Seydoux, who doesn't understand what she's doing in the orchestra pit and why the audience is shouting.

She's immediately surrounded by several members of the cast and crew. Mylene hugs her and asks her if she's okay while Kim and Nathanael stare up in amazement at Ladybug and Chat Noir swinging from the rafters, and Alya and Nino grin at them with a thumbs up.

Ladybug watches this and turns to smile at Chat. It's a quiet moment until they both realize that the audience has started to not only cheer, but also shout.

" _Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!"_

Chat Noir shrugs at Ladybug. "My lady, we should give the people what they want, don't you think? Since they did get deprived of their big finale kiss."

Ladybug smirks at Chat Noir and traces her fingers down his cheek and stopping at his lips, as the crowd cheers below. "You took the words right out of my mouth, _chaton_."

"I can do better than that," responds Chat Noir with a wink.

"You'd better hurry," whispers Ladybug. "My miraculous is running out of time."

"So is mine," says Chat Noir, quietly, before turning to the audience with a hammy grin.

"SO YOU WANT TO SEE US KISS?" he shouts. "I THINK WE CAN MAKE THAT HAPP—"

He's stopped mid-sentence by Ladybug, who's already grabbed his face and dipped him downward into a theatrical midair kiss. The audience breaks into thunderous applause and cheering, and after what seems like forever, Ladybug finally pulls back for air, leaving Chat Noir looking completely dazed.

She grins and lifts her hand and curls it into a fist. Chat Noir mirrors her movements and they join their fists in a light fist bump as she whispers " _Bien Joué_!" and releases the tension from the yo-yo string.

They quickly descend downward as Ladybug re-launches the yo-yo string at the catwalk above the stage and vaults off the back of one of the seats to swing upward and into the lights, much to the delight of the theater-goers sitting in the vicinity.

Chat waves to the audience through the lights with a cheeky grin and blows them a kiss before Ladybug grabs him by the collar and they disappear backstage.

The remaining cast and crew, who have all gathered in the orchestra pit, look up and sigh in collective relief.

"Alya, you got this on film, right?!" yells Kim. "This is the coolest thing that's ever happened here! Did you see that?!"

Alya and Nino exchange glances. Between the two of them, they've seen Adrien and Marinette kiss enough times over the past few weeks both in and out of uniform that neither of them is interested in capturing any further footage at this point.

Alya sighs. She knows that tomorrow, the Ladyblog readers are going to be asking the same questions Kim is asking right now. She supposes it's her fault for getting her readers excited about Ladybug and Chat Noir being in a relationship—she did bring this upon herself.

"Uh, I was distracted!" Alya manages to say as Nino pats her shoulder reassuringly, though she knows that she sounds unconvincing even to her own ears.

* * *

Within fifteen minutes, a large group of reporters has converged backstage to gather reactions from the cast and crew, and everyone shares their accounts.

Professeur Seydoux feels terrible about letting her emotions get the best of her and ruining the production, while Mylene tries to comfort her. "It's not your fault, Professeur!" she says. "We all get scared and stressed out sometimes. I know I do."

"Yes, we all know that," comments Chloe snidely as Ivan scowls at her.

"Why are you even here?" he says. "You're not part of this production."

"The play's over, you ogre," she sneers, having as usual learned nothing about the dangers of being mean to people. "I'm allowed to be backstage now."

Mylene frowns as she surveys the people gathered around and notices that two very important people are missing.

"Wait, where did Marinette and Adrien go?" she cries. "Why aren't they here? Are they okay?"

Ivan puts an arm around her shoulder. "I'm sure they're fine, don't worry," he says, just as Marinette and Adrien come running in.

"Here we are! We're okay!" they shout in unison, as the entire cast mobs them and wraps them in a group hug, while Chloe stands behind and scowls.

"Oh, thank goodness you're safe!" exclaims Rose. "I was so worried."

"Where were you guys?" asks Kim. "You missed an epic battle! Ladybug and Chat Noir were amazing!"

Adrien and Marinette start to stammer out an explanation when Alya cuts them off.

"I locked the two of them in the supply closet," she says, winking at them and subtly nodding her head towards Chloe, who is silently fuming at this information.

"What? Why?"

"It's because they've actually liked each other for ages. It's about time they confessed to each other!"

"You mean they weren't already dating? Oh, the poor things," says Rose.

"Alriiiight!" shouts Kim. "Great idea!"

"How did you get out then?" comments Chloe, narrowing her eyes.

"I let them out," says Nino.

"So why didn't they come in with you?"

"They, uh, needed a few minutes to fix themselves up, if you know what I mean," says Nino, grinning wickedly and exchanging a wink with Alya as Adrien and Marinette both turn bright red.

One of the members of the press cuts in. "Wait, the two of you are the lead actors! Does that mean you didn't get to meet the actual Ladybug and Chat Noir at all? What a shame. You were doing great out there. I'm sure they would have loved to meet you."

Marinette steals a glance at Adrien before she turns to the reporter. "No, no! Alya locked us in the closet after we had a chance to meet them. They, uh, came backstage right when we got there. And—you can quote me on this—Ladybug said that she thinks Adrien is a great Chat Noir."

The reporter nods vigorously and notes down the quote while Adrien blushes and adds, "And you should also write down that Chat Noir thinks that Marinette is an amazing Ladybug."

The reporter grins. "Well, that's great! And so does that mean that the two of you are dating now, just like Ladybug and Chat Noir?"

Adrien looks at Chloe, who's practically simmering at this point, and smirks before turning to wink at Marinette.

"Yes we are!"

Chloe squeals angrily as Adrien turns to kiss Marinette on the cheek. She blushes and laughs merrily with utter surprise, and the photographers capture the whole scene in a series of photos that are so sweet that later in the newsroom, all of the reporters complain that they're going to get cavities if they keep looking at them.

* * *

The next day, much to Marinette's embarrassment and Adrien's pleasure, the photograph and the play review are front page news across Paris. Tom and Sabine don't stop teasing her about it all morning, and they even send a box of croissants with her to school "for their future son-in-law."

Though Marinette is brighter than a lobster when she presents the box to Adrien, the absolutely delighted look on his face makes it all worth it.

Marinette thanks her lucky stars that fate has aligned in all the perfect ways over the past few months—Alya's play, getting cast in the roles, finding out that her partner Chat Noir and her crush Adrien are one and the same, and falling headfirst into the beginnings of a beautiful new relationship with him.

And it's not only that—now that both Alya and Nino know the secret about their superhero alter egos as well, carrying that responsibility is far lighter a burden than it was when they were carrying those secrets alone.

Marinette's not sure where the future will take her and Adrien, but wherever it leads, she knows they're going to face it together, hand in hand.


	15. The Odds and Ends (Epilogue)

_**Author's Note:**_ I love epistolary novels and stories, so I wanted my epilogue to be written in that style :)

* * *

 _ **Theater Review: In 'My Fair Ladybug', The Love Story of Our Beloved Superheroes is Brilliantly Portrayed by Young Collegians**_

By Tanja Chamack

As we all know, it was recently the first anniversary of the appearance of Ladybug and Chat Noir, in Paris. To commemorate the special occasion, the Collège Françoise Dupont presented _My Fair Ladybug_ , a spectacular play written by student Alya Césaire and directed by Professeur Seydoux.

Along with a stellar supporting cast, young students Marinette Dupain Cheng and Adrien Agreste took on the mantles of Ladybug and Chat Noir with such natural poise and chemistry that one would think that they _are_ Ladybug and Chat Noir. In fact, the entire audience was spellbound by their performance.

The realism of Agreste and Dupain-Cheng's performance was proved to be true when immediately before the finale, the performance was interrupted by the akumatized villain La Réalisatrice, who was furious that neither Ladybug nor Chat Noir were attending in person and started turning everyone in the audience into holograms as revenge.

Luckily, our heroes did show up in time with an impressive display of teamwork (and passion) to save the day, and I must say that when comparing the real thing against the performance, the performance most certainly held up.

It appears that the heroes agreed, as well—both actors stated that the real Ladybug and Chat Noir were impressed by their acting skills. Of course, it doesn't hurt that Agreste and Dupain-Cheng are also clearly infatuated with each other—it's much easier to take on the role of young superheroes in love when you're dating your co-star!

Rating: 5/5

* * *

7:28 AM

 **Marinette:** did you see the review?

 **Adrien:** I did. That's a good picture of us, don't you think? :)

 **Marinette:** (o˘◡˘o) yes

 **Adrien:** Hey, that's one of the Japanese smileys I showed you! I knew you'd like them.

 **Marinette** : they're really cute! also, my parents want me to give you something

 **Adrien** : what is it?

 **Marinette** : you'll see at school…

 **Adrien** : I hope it's food!

 **Marinette** : chaton, you're the hungriest kitty cat I've ever met

 **Adrien** : But I'm your hungry kitty cat. =^-^=

* * *

 **MEMO**

 **TO:** NATHALIE SANCOEUR

 **FROM:** GABRIEL AGRESTE

Send me as much information on the Dupain-Cheng girl as you can find. I need to know more about her if I am to allow Adrien to spend so much time with her. Send what you find to my Potential Intern folder. She is a designer and may be of use to the company a few years down the line.

* * *

Pierre Girard

CEO

Hologram Magic

Dear Pierre,

Please accept this letter as notice of my resignation from my position as hologram assistant. My last day of employment will be this Friday.

Due to recent traumatic events, I find myself unable to continue in this position, and I think it would be best for the company for someone else to take over my role.

Thank you so much for the opportunity, and best of luck in the future.

Sincerely,

Theo

* * *

 **LADYBLOG**

Hey there, ladybloggers! It's your girl Alya. I know a lot of you have heard about Ladybug and Chat Noir's epic kiss at the play last night and a ton of you have been asking me for some HD video footage.

Unfortunately, I don't have any, since I was doing tech at the play and I didn't have my phone on me at the time! (shocking, I know, but even the most experienced reporters are unprepared sometimes) So you'll have to make do with the videos that other audience members took last night that are already up on Youtube. Sorry, friends!

But on that note: I actually had the chance to speak with Ladybug and Chat Noir last night about their relationship, and they both told me that they'd like a little bit of privacy from here on out whenever they're out together in public—so that means no photos or videos of them being a cute couple (though they did say they're still willing to take selfies with fans! Just don't interrupt them in the middle of a date).

I know, I know. I'm a little bummed about it too, but if that's what our heroes want, let's respect their wishes! In the City of Love, everyone deserves to have some private time to themselves—especially our favorite heroes!

Till next time,

Alya

* * *

 **THE END**


	16. Bonus Chapter: The Other Date (Ch 8 AU)

**_Author's Note_** : As promised, this is my special bonus chapter for all you readers! :) An AU version of Chapter 8, The Date, where Adrien actually comes to visit Marinette as Chat Noir instead of wearing his play costume. Enjoy! And thanks so much for joining me on this ride :)

* * *

When the Gorilla shows up to pick up Adrien after school, he finds his young charge practically skipping around the bottom of the stairs, giddy with excitement.

As usual, he says nothing, choosing instead to raise his eyebrows as he watches the boy slide through the door and sit down, eyes glittering with purpose as he leans against the back of the seat, looking even more like a model than usual.

He's sure it has something to do with the black haired girl the boy has been spending so much time with recently. Marinette, he thinks her name is.

Whatever her name is, she's a good influence on him. It's been a long time since he's seen the boy smile like that, and it's all he can do not to smile as well.

* * *

Tikki floats by Marinette as she looks down at the message she's just received on her phone, brows furrowed, her lips curved into a perfectly upside down frown.

"What's wrong, Marinette?"

Marinette tosses the phone onto the bed and curls up into a ball on her computer chair.

"Adrien just texted me. He says he can't come tonight. Something else came up last minute, and he has to go to a fancy dinner with his father."

Tikki snuggles against her cheek. "I'm sorry, Marinette! I'm sure Adrien tried his best, but you know how strict his father is. You can hang out another time!"

"I know. I just really wanted tonight to be special, you know?"

Marinette looks across the room at the dress she's finished in a rush just for this special date. She sighs as she gazes at the crimson red bodice and the shimmering silvery skirt, in all of its gauzy, floating diaphanous perfection. It would have been perfect for tonight.

"I know," says Tikki, comfortingly. "But you can always hang out another time!"

Marinette looks down and sighs as her phone buzzes. She crosses her fingers and hopes that it's Adrien, texting again to say that he was just joking and that he really is coming tonight.

She scoots over to the bed to see who's calling and sees that it's Alya. She picks it back up and swipes it open and puts it on speaker before moving to her bed to lean against her cat cushion.

"Hey girl, what's up?" she says, trying her best to sound cheerful.

She is unsuccessful.

"What's with the glum voice? You sound like you just came home from a funeral. Is anything wrong? Do I need to come over?"

"No, I'm fine, I promise! It's just been a long day."

"Was it something Adrien said? Do I need to go beat him up?"

"What? Alya, no! How…I mean…I don't know?"

Alya snorts. "Girl, do you really think I'm not paying attention to you? I saw whatever it is that's going on between the two of you. I don't know what it is, but you know I've got your back if you need me to do anything."

"I promise I'm fine."

"Okay, well then, why don't we hang out tonight? Can I come over? Maman brought home a bunch of leftover appetizers from some fancy party at the hotel tonight and I hid them away before my sisters could get to them—I figured we could share."

Tikki nods encouragingly and smiles. "That's a great idea!" she whispers.

Marinette shakes her head. "Thanks Alya, but I think I need some alone time tonight."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah. Thanks though. I'll see you at school?"

"Okay, lady. I'll see you then. Bye."

"Bye."

Marinette sighs and looks down as she hangs up. She wants to tell Alya the truth about everything, but it's not the right time yet. And she's not sure that's safe, either.

Of course, knowing Alya, she probably doesn't have much time. Her friend has always been curious beyond belief and has a sharp instinct for when something's going on with her, and even though Marinette's been able to hide the truth about Ladybug so far, she's not sure she's going to be able to do the same when it comes to her new relationship.

Because Adrien's her one weakness, and Alya knows everything about it.

It's one of the problems that come along with wearing her heart on her sleeve—she couldn't hide her fondness for Adrien if she tried, and to be honest, Marinette doesn't really want to hide it.

She just doesn't want Alya to know that she's bummed out and wants to be alone because she thought he was going to come over to her house to make out with her, and now he's not.

* * *

It's 7pm, the time Adrien was supposed to arrive for their fourth date.

Instead, Marinette is standing alone on her balcony, leaning against the railing, while Tikki takes a nap inside. She feels silly for being so bummed out. It's not like they're not going to have another date again soon. But she was excited for tonight, hoping that he would have taken her prompt to "be creative" and done something fun.

And that's when she feels a rush of wind to her left and screams bloody murder as a pair of laser green eyes suddenly appears in the darkness and a large hand grasps onto her left shoulder.

"Marinette—stop! It's me! Chat Noir! I mean, Adrien!"

It takes a full two minutes for Marinette to stop panicking and start breathing again normally.

"Why are you here?!" she manages to say, in between heavy, unsteady breaths.

Chat Noir looks sheepish. "You said to be creative…so I thought that I'd pretend that I couldn't come tonight and then surprise you by showing up here like this."

Marinette finally calms down at his bashful grin and shakes her head, smiling.

"This is sweet, Chat Noir—Adrien. But I really do think you should come back in from the front entrance. Like I said, there's no reason for you to sneak around. My parents love you! In fact, I'm pretty sure my father made an entire basket of croissants for you after I told him you were coming over tonight."

Chat Noir looks down woefully. "I totally messed this up, didn't I?"

"Oh, _chaton_ , no! I'm the one who told you to be creative. I should have just told you to come over."

She looks back up at him with a cheeky grin. "But I guess…since you're here…we could make the most of it before you leave and come back and introduce yourself like the proper gentleman you are."

She reaches over and rings his bell before grabbing his collar and dragging him into her room.

* * *

"Sit, _minou_ ," says Marinette, pointing at her bed. "And close your eyes. I've got a surprise for you."

Chat Noir does as she says, dutifully sitting ramrod straight at the edge of the bed, eyes shut tight and hands clasped together. He looks like a little boy about to make a wish on a star, and Marinette smiles fondly at the sight.

She dims the lights in her room and walks over to her closet, where she's put away the dress she planned to wear tonight, and pulls it back out. Chat Noir blushes and coughs nervously, squeezing his eyes shut even tighter as he hears her unzip the clothes she's wearing and hears them fall softly to the ground.

Marinette slips into her dress and pulls out her hair ties, letting her hair fall in loose waves against her face. She tiptoes barefoot across the room, light as a fairy, and taps Chat Noir's warm, flushed cheeks with her fingertips.

" _Mon minou_ , open your eyes."

He does, and he's breathless at the sight. Marinette looks like rubies and starlight, shining bright in the dim light of the room, her cheeks glowing. She's more beautiful than he ever could have imagined she could look.

And he has absolutely no idea what to say to her.

And she has absolutely no idea what to say to him.

In the absence of the adrenaline rush that surrounded them last night, they're beginning to realize that the space between them is a new one, with a different kind of energy that they're only beginning to understand. What does it mean to be teenagers in love? And what does it mean to be teenagers in love, who are also superheroes, and partners?

"So," says Marinette. "What now?"

"My lady, you know I always follow your lead," says Chat Noir, flushing as he nervously raises an arm up to rub the back of his neck.

Marinette smirks and nods. "Okay, then," she says, sauntering up to him and playing with one of his cat ears before grabbing his collar and pulling him close, lightly brushing her lips against his.

As she pulls back, Chat grins and wraps his arms around her waist, pulling her closer. His hands brush against her skin as her bodice crinkles up, and she shivers with pleasure as the ribbed edges of his gloves press against her spine.

She presses back in for another kiss, but unprepared for the sudden movement, Chat Noir lets go and trips backwards, thudding hard onto the bed with his head landing right on Marinette's cat cushion.

Marinette bursts into merry laughter as she looks back and forth between the grinning cushion and her silly _chaton_.

"You look like twins!" she says in between giggles.

"Very funny," says Chat Noir, pretending to pout.

"I'm sorry," says Marinette, trying to be serious.

"I don't think you are though," replies Chat Noir.

Marinette grins wickedly. "You're right, I'm not. But for what it's worth, I think you're the more attractive twin."

"Is that right?" says Chat Noir.

"Without a doubt," says Marinette.

"Well that makes me feel a little bit better," says Chat Noir. "It would be nice to have some _purr-oof_ though."

"Oh, I can prove it to you right now," says Marinette, sitting down beside him on the edge of the bed and slowly inching closer until she pounces on him and pulls back his collar to start kissing his neck.

At first he murmurs with contentment, and then she hits a ticklish spot and he bursts into laughter and Marinette jerks back, surprised. But then when she sees the sparkle in his eyes, she's absolutely delighted, and she moves in for another kiss and tickle attack.

After about fifteen more minutes of kissing and tickling, Marinette and Chat Noir are exhausted, and they lean against her cat cushion, cuddling.

And then that's when they hear it—the resounding thud of footsteps rushing up the stairs, and they look at each other in a panic. Marinette manages to shove Chat Noir under her bed with a yelp just as her parents and Alya come bursting through the trap door.

"Marinette!" shouts Alya. "I just saw a video that got uploaded on Youtube just now of Chat Noir jumping onto your balcony. What's he doing here? Is something wrong? Are you okay?"

Marinette laughs nervously. "Ahaha yes, yes! I—I'm fine! I'm absolutely, 100% fine! Chat Noir? He's not here! I have no idea what you're talking about!"

"Are you sure, honey? We're worried about you!" says Sabine.

"If there's anything you need to tell us, don't be afraid," adds her father.

The three of them notice all at once that she looks disheveled, her lipstick smearing onto her cheek, hair mussed up.

Sabine looks at her daughter suspiciously. "Is there something you're not telling us, Marinette?"

Marinette tries to stop herself from sliding her gaze at the edge of her bed, but her eyes betray her, and the three of them follow her gaze to two large, distinctly foot shaped bumps bulging out against the bedskirt.

Tom leans down and pushes it away to reveal…Adrien, with lipstick stains on his cheeks and neck and wearing a bashful smile.

"My dear, it looks like we've caught a young tomcat!"

Marinette waves her arms around and screeches as Sabine tries to hide a smile and look serious.

"I was going to have him come downstairs and make a proper introduction, I promise!"

Alya raises her eyebrows. "How did you get up here, anyway, Adrien? It's obvious you didn't come in the front door."

"Uhh…Chat Noir is a friend of mine," he ventures. "I…climbed up here on his back."

The three of them stare at him skeptically before Alya whips her head towards Marinette.

"And you! I'm never going to believe you when you say you need alone time ever again."

"That's fair," replies Marinette, with a contorted expression that somehow manages to combine panic with both embarrassment and amusement. "I wouldn't believe me either."


End file.
